Birmingham: Veteran Sharath Kamal extended his domination at the Commonwealth Games here by winning the gold medal in men’s singles event, thrashing England’s Liam Pitchford 4-1 in the final. After going down in the first game, Sharath Kamal outsmarted the 29-year-old nimble-footed Briton 11-13, 11-7, 11-2, 11-6, 11-8 to finish on top of podium after a gap of 16 years.
The 40-year-old Sharath had earlier won gold in men’s singles at the Melbourne Games in 2006 and also bagged a bronze at the 2010 showpiece in New Delhi.
The Tamil Nadu-born superstar paddler has a rich haul of four medals in this edition of the Games, having won the men’s team and mixed doubles gold and a silver medal in men’s doubles.
With Monday’s sensational gold, Sharath has taken his overall medal tally to 13 at the CWG, since making his Games debut in 2006.
Compatriot G Sathiyan bagged his maiden Commonwealth Games singles medal as he won bronze, beating home-favourite Paul Drinkhall 4-3 in front of a packed crowd here. Sathiyan avenged his men’s doubles final loss against Drinkhall and triumphed 11-9, 11-3, 11-5, 8-11, 9-11, 10-12 and 11-9.
Sathiyan paired up Sunday with the veteran Sharath Kamal to win the men’s doubles silver after going down to the English duo of Drinkhall and Pitchford.
Late evening Sunday, Sharath Kamal won his first mixed doubles gold at the Commonwealth Games. Sharath defied age to team up with young Sreeja Akula to finish on top of the victory podium.
Barring a blip in the second game, Sharath and Akula pair was in complete control of the tie. They comfortably defeated Javen Choong and Karen Lyne of Malaysia 11-4, 9-11, 11-5, 11-6 in the gold medal contest.
