By Bharat Sharma, IANS,
New Delhi: Defending table tennis champion Sharath Kamal made up somewhat for his loss in the men’s singles semi-finals in the morning by pairing up with Subhajit Saha to win the doubles gold at the Commonwealth Games here Wednesday. The Indians beat the formidable Singapore pair of Gao Ning and Yang Zi 3-2 in a nerve-wracking final.
The crowd at Yamuna Sports Complex erupted seeing Sharath and Saha hold nerves to beat Gao and Yang 9-11, 12-10, 11-4, 5-11, 11-8 in the summit clash.
Sharath could not stop his emotions while the Indian national anthem was played out at the medal ceremony and said he will never forget the moment for the rest of his life.
“I won a gold for my country, it’s a great feeling. The anthem gave me great pride. Coach Massimo and I promised each other before the Games that we will get to hear the national anthem at least once in the competition and today we managed to do that,” said Sharath, who in the morning lost to Yang.
India has won three Games medals in table tennis so far and are assured of a fourth medal when teammates Sharath and Soumydeep Roy face each other in the bronze play-off Thursday.
The Indain women’s pair of Mouma Das and Poulomi Ghatak are also in contention for a bronze and will face Vivian Tan and Peri Campbell Thursday.
The women were outclassed by Jiawei Li and Beibei Sun of Singapore 6-11, 6-11, 9-11 in the semi-finals.
The day did not start on a good note for India as Sharath Kamal lost to Singaporean Yang Zi 3-4 in the semi-finals of the men’s singles.
The world No 40 won three out of the first five games against lower ranked Yang but could not grab the crucial points and lost 11-9, 8-11, 11-7, 7-11, 5-11 and 9-11.
In the other semi-final, Soumyadeep Roy, who made it to the last four upsetting two higher-ranked players, proved no match for world No. 17 Gao Ning and lost 2-11, 2-11, 9-11, 7-11.