India have completed a clean sweep of the team events in table tennis with the men clinching the gold after thrashing Nigeria 3-0 in the final on Monday.
The men’s victory follows the gold medal won by the Indian women’s team where they pulled off a massive upset and beat Singapore to the title on Sunday. The men though also faced Singapore on their way to the final, coming out on top courtesy a 3-2 win over the defending champions.
The final started with Achanta Sharath Kamal playing Bode Abiodun and the 35-year-old Indian star took four games to close out the match. He dropped the first game 4-11 but then went on to win the next three games 11-5, 11-4 and 11-9.
India's top-ranked singles player Sathiyan Gnanasekaran then doubled the lead with another come-from-behind victory over Segun Toriola 10-12, 11-3, 11-3, 11-4.The first game of the match went down to the wire with both the paddlers going neck and neck before the Nigerian sneaked past to take a slender 1-0 lead. Thereafter, Sathiyan came back strongly to demolish Segun's prospects in the second game and went on to dominate the Nigerian in the third and fourth games too as India's lead swelled to 2-0.
With India in the driver's seat, Nigeria hoped for a turnaround in fortunes in the do-or-die third rubber, the men's doubles tie.
Sathiyan and Harmeet Desai were assigned with the doubles tie and the duo rather had a comfortable 11-8, 11-5, 11-3 win against Omotayo Olajide and Abiodun Bode.
In the first game, the Indian pair opened up with a 4-0 lead and kept things tight to pocket it comfortably. Harmeet and Sathiyan looked in complete control in the second game as well, and stifled the Nigerians to score freely.
High on confidence, the Indian duo hardly lost a sweat to pocket the third game, leading to loud celebrations from the Indian camp on clinching the historic gold.
With the loss, Nigeria bagged the silver while England settled for the bronze after defeating Singapore.
This is the first time since racket sport’s induction into the Commonwealth Games’ program that India has topped both categories.
With individual and doubles medals still on offer, India's performance is already a marked improvement from its disappointing showing in Glasgow four years ago when it just managed just a silver in men's doubles.
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