Drinkhall proving a table-topper as he strikes Games gold
LIAM Pitchford believes his table tennis doubles win with Middlesbrough’s Paul Drinkhall is “better than the Gold Coast” after the pair won Commonwealth Games gold on Sunday.
The English duo successfully defended their doubles title won in Australia after beating India’s Sathiyan Gnanasekaran and Sharath Kamal Achanta in a repeat of their gold-medal clash in 2018.
After a nervy start, England lost the first set but managed to win the next two in front of an energetic crowd at the NEC.
India levelled in the fourth set and the match came down to a crucial fifth but England did enough to retain their Commonwealth title with Pitchford describing the win as “amazing”.
He said: “It is an amazing achievement and something I am really proud of.
“For me this feels better than the victory on the Gold Coast.
“We knew they would not give up, that we would have to fight them for every point and that is what we did.
“It was not so much tactically what we needed to do, it was just fight for every point, get our legs into the ball and make them play.
“The last eight points, I thought they were probably some of the best we have ever played.”
Throughout the game the pair celebrated nearly every point like it was match point, - but Pitchford admitted he felt the pressure after losing the fourth game.
He added: “I got a little bit nervous and that probably got into Paul as well. He tried to calm me down.
“Fifth set I just tried to come out, get myself going and play my shots and yeah, I think I definitely did that in the fifth set.”
The fifth set got off to a shaky start but the pair, who won bronze in the men’s team event earlier in the week, managed to see it out.
Drinkhall added: “We lost sight of playing the ball which was there and points in the game and getting stuck in the moment a little bit.
“Once we threw that out and just played table tennis we were better.” ■ ENGLAND won Commonwealth Games hockey gold for the first time as Australia were beaten 2-1 at Birmingham 2022.
Second-quarter goals from Holly Hunt and Tess Howard delivered glory for England’s women less than 24 hours after the men had suffered semi-final despair at the hands of Australia.
Ambrosia Malone struck a consolation for Australia inside the final 20 seconds.
England captain Hollie PearneWebb revealed the squad received a pre-match good-luck video message from Lionesses’ skipper Leah Williams, while Gary, Phil and Tracey Neville also sent their best wishes.
Pearne-Webb, part of the Great
Britain side which won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympicsm, said: “We saw what the Lionesses did last week and they were an inspiration to us.
“To be on that whole women’s team sport movement is an absolute privilege.
“This has never been achieved by an England hockey team before and it is so special.
We knew they would come out hard, and I think we surprised them by putting them on the backfoot a little bit.
“I am pleased how we started that first half. We stepped off our game but we got there in the end.”