CWG 2018: Men's team emulates women's in winning table tennis gold

NEW DELHI: A day after the Indian women's table tennis team delivered India its first gold medal at any Commonwealth Games, the men's contingent repeated the success with a 3-0 win over Nigeria at Gold Coast, Australia.
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Leading the way was the experienced Achanta Sharath Kamal who beat Bode Abiodun 4-11, 11-5, 11-4, 11-9, before the top-ranked Indian paddler Sathiyan Gnanasekaran dispatched Segun Toriola 10-12, 11-3, 11-3, 11-4 to put India up 2-0.
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Pairing up with Harmeet Desai in the men's doubles category soon after, Sathiyan - who was in February named Times of India Sports Awards (TOISA) TT Player of the Year for his achievements in 2017 - confirmed India's gold medal with an 11-8, 11-5, 11-3 win over Abiodin and Olajide Omotayo.

As soon as the winning point was sealed, the two paddlers hugged each other as the rest of India's TT contingent ran in from the sidelines. From never having won a gold medal at the CWG, India now have two in less than 24 hours.

On Sunday, Manika Batra - also a TOISA winner this year, in the Peoples Choice category - sealed the country's first gold with some stunning play against four-time CWG gold medalists Singapore. Batra, ranked 58 in the world, scored the biggest win of her career by beating multiple Olympic medalist Feng Tianwei 3-2 and then 100th-ranked Yihan Zhou 3-0.