2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast
Singapore’s GAO Ning has made up for his devastating final losses at the 2010 and 2014 Commonwealth Games by winning the men’s singles gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
The 35-year-old faced the number one seed and the hot favorite for the gold medal Quadri ARUNA (NGR) in the hotly anticipated gold medal match in front of a capacity crowd. Despite the Nigerian superstar fighting hard with many amazing rallies the Singaporean’s experience and cool head proved the difference as he won the match 11-7 11-8 5-11 3-11 11-9 11-5.
With the illusive gold medal around his neck GAO stated: “Winning the fifth game was important but it was very difficult to predict the outcome of the match until the last point had finished. It was one of those matches were sometimes you win sometimes you lose. It could have gone either way. Today I felt very calm. Twice I’ve been the runner up now the winner but at the Commonwealth Games I’ve won Men’s Team and Men’s Doubles gold medals; sure I’m happy to win I just did my best.”
Sharath Kamal ACHANTA capped off a memorable Commonwealth Games for the Indian team with a hard-fought bronze medal. The 2006 Commonwealth Games Champion was too good for England’s Sam WALKER in the bronze medal play-off winning 11-7 11-9 8-11 11-6 12-10.
Singapore added to their medal tally by breaking the English hearts in the Mixed Doubles gold medal match. The singles champion GAO Ning paired up with the women’s singles silver medalist YU Mengyu to show their experience by winning the key points to defeat Liam PITCHFORD & Tin-Tin HO 12-10 12-10 11-9 to clinch the title.
Indians Sathiyan GNANASEKARAN & Manika BATRA teamed up to defeat their colleagues Sharath Kamal ACHANTA & Mouma DAS to take home the bronze medal.
The best players in the Commonwealth Game’s attention now turns to the Liebherr 2018 World Team Table Tennis Championships which will be held in Halmstad Sweden from 29 April to 6 May 2018.
Full list of 2018 Commonwealth Games champions:
- Men’s Team: India
- Women’s Team: India
- Men’s Doubles: Paul DRINKHALL & Liam PITCHFORD (ENG)
- Women’s Doubles: FENG Tianwej & YU Mengyu (SGP)
- Mixed Doubles: GAO Ning & YU Mengyu (SGP)
- Class 6-10 Women’s Para: Melissa TAPER (AUS)
- Class 6-10 Men’s Para: Ross WILSON (ENG)
- Men’s Singles: Gao Ning (SGP)
- Women’s Singles: Manika BATRA (IND)
