C'Wealth Games: Saha-Sharath rally to clinch gold in table tennis

 Achanta Sharath Kamal overcame the loss of his table tennis singles semifinal to win the doubles gold in the company of Subhajit Saha in New Delhi on Wednesday. Sharath, who lost a tense seven-game affair to Yang Zi in the afternoon, recovered in time to clinch the doubles final; the emotion of the moment spilling over in a primeval scream that he let out after the final point was nailed. Top seeds Kamal and Saha beat second seeded Singaporean pair Yang Zi/ Gao Ning 9-11 12-10 11-4 5-11 11-8.

In other matches featuring Indians, Soumyadeep Roy was blanked 4-0 by Gao Ning in the first semifinal, before Poulomi Ghatak/ Mouma Das were treated likewise by Li Jiawei/ Sun Beibei, in a 3-0 result. India, thus, have four medals so far from table tennis — a gold (men’s doubles), bronze (men’s singles and team), and silver (women’s team), and have bettered the three-medal haul of the last Games.

Kamal was more expressive than the unflappable Saha, and wept on the podium when the anthem was played. “For me, personally, this is better than the singles gold (at the last CWG). There we went in as underdogs, and people could say we were lucky. This time Singapore was very strong. We had to prove our hard work, and that of our coaches. This is very precious to me.”

With three hours to recover before his doubles final, Sharath said he was sitting in the practice hall with his wife when the team’s Italian coach, Massimo Constantini, came up and said: “Hey champ, take some rest.”

“I will remember that all my life,” said Kamal. “That made me feel a lot better.”

Saha is the more low-profile of the two, but he was on fire in the final, not just holding his end, but making up for Kamal, who was scratchy to begin with.
The Indians levelled the first game deficit and flew to a 7-0 lead in the third thanks to Saha. With a 2-1 lead, the Indians were beginning to smell victory, but Yang Zi and Gao Ning clinched the fourth game rather easily and it went to the decider.

A rare miss by Saha saw them trail 6-7 — and a sense of deja vu was apparent. But Saha again rose to the occasion, killing Yang Zi’s serve, and Kamal too got into the act, the looping forehand homing into vacant spaces.

The match was won, India had gold, and Kamal wept like a child on the podium.

Indian results: Men’s Doubles Final: Sharath Kamal/ Subhajit Saha (Ind) bt Gao Ning/ Yang Zi (Sin) 9-11 12-10 11-4 5-11 11-8; Men’s Singles SF: Yang Zi (Sin) bt Sharath Kamal (Ind) 9-11 11-8 7-11 11-7 7-11 11-5 11-9; Gao Ning (Sin) bt S Roy (Ind) 11-2 11-2 11-9 11-7; Women’s singles: Li Jiawei/ Sun Beibei (Sin) bt P Ghatak/ M Das (Ind) 11-5 11-6 11-9