SURAT: Indian men claimed the team championship beating England 3-1 while their women’s squad had to satisfy themselves with the silver medal after losing to Singapore 1-3 in the final of the 20th Avadh Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships at the Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay Indoor Stadium here today.
The Indian men paddlers have done it only second time in 20 editions of the championships, having won gold in 2004 in Malaysia under Achanta Sharath Kamal, who went on to win his individual gold, too.
For the women, this was the fourth occasion to claim silver. They had won the white metal in 1975, 1983 and 1991.
In the golden fight, England’s David McBeath gave a scare to both Harmeet Desai and India when the Indian, after leading 2-0, went down 2-3 in what was a wonderful comeback by the Englishman. David had the presence of mind to slow down the game and catch Harmeet on the wrong foot several times in the last three games to put his team one-up.
But Soumyajit Ghosh beat Helshen Weerasinghe rather easily to level the score as the Sri Lankan origin player did not have any answer to Ghosh’s rapid play. Though Weerasinghe tried to borrow his team mate’s line, it did not work against the top Indian player. (AGENCIES)
Follow our WhatsApp channel