The day 11 of Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games is proving to be historic outing for Indian athletes. Manika Batra, the 24-year-old table tennis player has won the gold medal in women’s singles beating Mengyu Yu in straight sets 4-0. This is the first time an Indian paddler has won a gold medal in Commonwealth Games. Earlier, Neerja Chopra became the first Indian to win a gold in javelin throw event at CWG while boxer MC Mary Kom also clinched the gold medal on her Commonwealth Games debut. India’s medal tally now moves to 54 including 24 gold, 13 silver and 17 bronze as they maintain their third position in the CWG 2018 medal table and team standings behind Australia and England.
Manika Batra has been phenomenal in the Gold Coast Games after she completed her third medal win in Women's Team, Women's Singles and Women's Doubles events. After leading India to a historic gold medal win in women’s team event earlier in the tournament, Manika followed it up with a silver medal in doubles event. However, the biggest win for young paddler came on Saturday when she registered a fantastic victory over her strong opponent to secure the gold medal in singles finals 11-7, 11-6, 11-2, 11-7.
On April 13, Manika Batra and Mouma Das had clinched the silver medal in women's doubles category at the 21st Commonwealth Games. The Indian duo was outplayed 0-3 (5-11, 4-11, 5-11) by Feng Tianwei and Yu Mengyu of Singapore in the gold medal clash. Unforced errors and some aggressive game from Singapore kept India on the back foot throughout the match.
Right from the start, Indian paddlers never looked in the contention as Manika and Mouma failed to match the skill and tenacity of their opponents. In all the three games, Mouma and Manika were outclassed in every department. In the other match, Sutirtha Mukherjee and Pooja Saharabudhe lost the bronze medal match 1-3 (13-15, 7-11, 11-8, 7-11) to Ho Ying and Lyne Karen of Malaysia. (Inputs from IANS)
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 14, 2018 03:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).