Badminton powers India to 22 gold medalsGolden double: Double Olympic medallist and world badminton champion P V Sindhu, ranked seventh, created history by not only winning her maiden gold medal — beating Michelle Li, ranked 13th, of Canada, the 2014 champion at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games (CWG) in straight sets, 21-15, 21-13 — at the CWG in Birmingham but also powering India to a double century of first place podium finishes — placing India fourth in the all-time gold medals list after Australia (998 gold medals), England (769 gold medals) and Canada (510 gold medals).
Golden hat-trick: It wasn’t just Sindhu who had the national anthem playing for her — in the men’s singles category, 10th ranked 20-year old Lakshya Sen rallied brilliantly from a set down to beat the 42nd ranked Malaysian Ng Tze Yong, 19-21, 21-9, 21-16. Adding the cherry on top were the men’s doubles duo of Satwik Sairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty who won India’s third gold medal in badminton in a single day by staving off the English duo of Sean Vendy and Ben Lane, 21-15, 21-13.
Golden comeback: It was a day of racquet sports, with India’s fourth gold medal of the day — and 22nd overall in this edition in its haul of 61 medals that also included 16 silver and 23 bronze — coming at the hands of Achanta Sharath Kamal, who, at the age of 40 and ranked 39th beat World No. 20 and 29 year old Liam Pitchford 11-13, 11-7, 11-2, 11-5, 11-8. To put things in perspective, Kamal, who had a brilliant run in what could possibly be his last appearance in CWG with a haul of 4 medals, including 3 gold, won his first CWG gold medal 16 years back, when Pitchford was just 13.
And the big miss!
The Indian men’s hockey team suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Australia as the kangaroos thrashed them 7-0 to win the gold, relegating the men in blue to a silver — their third defeat at the hands of the Australians in a CWG final who blasted five goals in the first half itself to take the game away from the Indians.
