Buenos Aires: Promising Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen had to be satisfied for a silver after he lost the men’s singles summit clash against Li Shifeng of China in straight games at the Youth Olympics here. HS Prannoy had won a silver in 2010 in the same event.
Sen, the reigning junior Asian champion, lost 15-21, 19-21 in a 42-minute final match to bag the second place. The fourth seed had beaten Shifeng in Asian Championships quarterfinals in July but Friday evening, it was the turn of the Chinese to turn the tables on the 17-year-old.
In the first game, Shifeng took an early lead and raced to 14-5 in no time. Sen made a fine recovery to narrow down the gap to 13-16 but he could not sustain it and Shifeng went ahead 18-13 and then made it 20-14 to have six game points. Though the Indian saved one game point, the Chinese won the next one to pocket the first game in 17 minutes.
The second game was a closer fight though the Chinese was leading all the time. Shifeng was ahead 8-7 initially but the gap widened to 12-7 before Sen made it 11-14. The three-point gap remained for some time before the Chinese made it 18-14 and then 19-14.
The youngster made a last-ditch effort to save the match by winning three straight points but Shifeng still made it 20-17 to have three match points. The Indian reeled off two straight points to make it 19-20 and just one point away from a deuce. But his Chinese opponent was a hard nut to crack as Shifeng won the final point to clinch the match and the gold.
