India sweep TT with seven golds

From Our Correspondent

SHILLONG, Feb 10:  India made a clean sweep winning seven gold and five silver medals in the women's doubles, men's doubles, mixed doubles, and men's and women's singles events of table tennis competitions in the 12th South Asian Games here on Wednesday.

An enthralling women's singles fil  saw veteran Mouma Das overcome tiol champion Manika Batra in a grueling seven-game encounter 4-3 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Sports Hall.

However, the men's fil later ended prematurely after G Sathiyan had to pull out in the fourth game after picking up an injury to his playing hand. That gave tiol men's champion Anthony Amalraj the gold medal.

In front of a packed crowd, the two top women of the tourment battled fiercely right from the word go.

Batra took the first game 15-13, before Das levelled proceedings in the second 12-10. Batra then took the lead again 11-7 in the third, but the 31-year-old Das bagged the next two games 15-13 and 11-8. Batra, from Delhi was having none of it, however, and came back once again to take the sixth game 13-11, forcing a decider.

The scores in the seventh were level at 9-9 when Das grabbed the next two for the gold medal, with Batra awarded silver. Ishara Madhurangi and Ruvini Kanngura (both of Sri Lanka) were awarded bronze as losing semifilists.

In the men's fil, Sathiyan took the first game 11-6, before Amalraj equalised with the exact same score in the second. The eventual gold medal winner was leading 8-6 in the third when Sathiyan injured his hand during play and needed medical attention. He soldiered on and lost the third game 11-6 and it was 2-2 in the fourth when, after further medical aid, he was forced to concede. Rohan Sirise and Udaya Rasinghe (both of Sri Lanka) were awarded bronze as losing semifilists.

Earlier in the morning G Sathiyan and Devesh Karia made short work of Anthony Amalraj and Sanil Shetty in the fil of the table tennis men's doubles.

Amalraj was looking for his third gold medal of the tourment, but the tiol singles champion and his partner were taken down by the young pairing of Sathiyan/Karia in straight games, 11-1, 11,8, 11-6 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Sports Hall.

Earlier, Manika Batra and Pooja Sahasrabudhe were crowned champions of the women's doubles by defeating Mouma Das and K Shamini, also in straight games, 11-7, 13-11, 11-5. Although the silver medallists gave the winners a hiccup in the second game that went to 24 points, Batra and Sahasrabudhe had little trouble in the first and third games.

With all the contestants in the fils from India, two more gold and two silver were added to India's kitty.

Bronze medals were awarded to the losing semifilists. In the women's category, bronze was won by bita Shrestha and Eli Maharjan of Nepal and Ishara Madhurangi and Erandi Warusawitha of Sri Lanka. Both bronzes in the men's category went to pairs from Sri Lanka - Rohan Sirise/Chameern Ginge and Udaya Rasinghe/Nirmala Jayasinghe.