The Lawn Ball women’s team of India today won the gold medal in the Commonwealth Games by defeating South Africa in the finals. Along with this, for the first time any medal in this sport was secured by the country in the Commonwealth games. In the match played on Tuesday, in the Indian women's team, Lovely Choubey (Lead), Pinky (Second), Nayanmani Sankia (Third) and Roopa Rani Tirkey (Skip) performed brilliantly. Among these players, Lovely and Roopa Rani are from Jharkhand.
Earlier on August 1, the Indian team had defeated New Zealand 16-13 in the semi-finals and reached the final. On the achievement of these players, Dr. Madhukant Pathak of Jharkhand Olympic Association, CD Singh, Hockey Jharkhand's Bholanath Singh and many other sports association officials and sports lovers have expressed happiness.
The Indian women's team had maintained its lead in the match from the very beginning. In the seventh round the Indian team was ahead of Africa 8-2. However, during the 12th round the match was at level. But, then there was a difference of 12-10 from the 13th round. In the 14th round it became 15-10. Ultimately the match ended at 17-10.
Roopa Rani and Lovely Choubey have been famous players of lawn ball. For the first time, both have won a medal in the Commonwealth Games. Roopa had participated in the Indian team in lawn ball four times and Lovely three times. At present, Roopa Rani serves in the Government of Jharkhand as District Sports Officer. So far, she has won 12 gold, two silver and four bronze medals at the national level. She has also won a total of 9 medals including one gold and silver at the international level. This time playing in Birmingham Commonwealth, Rupa has been seen participating in this level tournament since 2007. That is, for the fourth time she has participated in the Commonwealth Games. She has also played in 2010 (Delhi), 2014 (Glasgow), 2018 (Gold Coast). Roopa has also qualified for the lawn ball championship to be held in 2023.
Lovely Choubey, who got a job under the direct recruitment process of players, is currently associated with the police department in the Jharkhand government. Before 2008, she was thinking of moving forward in athletics. But then he became interested in playing lawn ball.