It was déjà vu for Saurav Ghosal. Much like his men’s singles final loss on Tuesday, he was again on the cusp of sealing the gold medal match. But, he conceded the game and let his opponent make a comeback. The scenes of that harrowing loss to Kuwait’s Abdullah Almezayen resurfaced in his mind. For a moment, the thoughts of going through the similar mental ordeal froze him.
But he managed to banish all the negativity and won the match to give India their first-ever squash gold medal at the Asian Games. He beat Malaysia’s Ong Bang Hee 3-2 (6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 12-14, 11-9) after Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu shocked 2010 Asian Games singles gold medalist Mohamad Azlan Bin Iskander in the first match of the team event 3-1 (11-8, 11-6, 8-11, 11-4), to win the men’s team event 2-1 at the Yeorumul Squash Courts here on Saturday.
This medal may not be able to heal the scars of men’s singles finals loss but Ghosal must be relieved after getting to wear a gold medal around his neck, albeit in a team event.
“The thoughts of the lost final did strike my mind but I didn’t want to disappoint my team. I wanted to win it for them and for my country. So, after losing the fourth set, I picked myself up and gave my best to win it. It was a tough game but I am glad I could achieve it,” India’s best squash player Ghosal said.
“I am very happy for the entire team. But I’m yet to get over the disappointment of losing the singles final. It would have been two gold medals (for me),” he added.
Earlier in the day, the women’s team lost their final 2-1 to Malaysia to settle for silver. Both Anaka Alankamony and Dipika Pallikal were blanked out by Delia Odette Arnold and Nicol David, respectively. The Indians were outplayed as they couldn’t win a single set in the finals.
Alankamony played the first game and put up a good fight in the first two sets but Arnold proved to be a better player after and win the match 3-0 (11-9, 12-10, 11-2) to give her team a winning start.
In the second game, India’s No 1 Pallikal was pitted against world No 1 Nicol David and the result was on expected lines. The Malaysian gave Pallikal a good thrashing, much like the women’s singles final four days back.
“It’s been a fantastic event. Unfortunately, we lost, but hopefully we come back in four years,” Pallikal said. “I think coming to Incheon all together is great. We are a very young team, so we have another challenge in the next four years,” she added. “First, I’m just so proud to actually be with this team. We just won our second gold in the Asian Games. It was not easy. All of us have trained really hard. They wanted to win this game, and that’s what the result shows,” Nicol said.