Sharath Kamal wins CWG TT singles gold medal after 16 years

The 40-year-old Indian paddler had last clinched a gold medal in men's singles in 2006.

Achanta Sharath Kamal clinched his second gold in men's singles at Commonwealth Games with a gold in CWG 2022. The 40-year-old Indian table tennis GOAT beat Liam Pitchford of England 11-13, 11-7, 11-2, 11-6, and 11-8 to claim the gold medal. This is Sharath Kamal's second CWG gold medal in men's singles and first since 2006, Melbourne.

The 40-year-old also now has seven gold medals at Commonwealth Games and 13 overall medals. Solely at Birmingham 2022, the singles gold is Sharath's third gold and fourth overall medal. Apart from the singles, he won gold medals in the mixed doubles and men's team events.

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Having advanced to the men's singles final dropping just five games, Sharath Kamal dropped only one in the gold medal event. He lost the opening game to Pitchford 11-13. But there was no stopping him from there. Sharath took the second game 11-7, the third 11-2, and the fourth 11-6, to steer 3-1 clear.

Pitchford fought hard in the deciding set, but Sharath was unstoppable. After a brush-off the shirt denied him the match, Sharath took the next immediate point to clinch the gold.

Journey to the final

Sharath overcame tough opponents right from the start to make the final in TT men's singles. He beat Australia's Finn Luu 4-0 in round 32 and Olajide Omotayo of Nigeria 4-2 in the last 16 to reach the quarters.

Then he overcame Singapore's Yong Izaac Quek (4-0) and Paul Drinkhall (4-2) to qualify for his first men's singles gold medal event at Commonwealth Games in 16 years.

In the final, Pitchford looked totally clueless against Achanta Sharath and succumbed to a defeat. The Englishman returns with a silver medal. Pitchford started well winning the first set in a very close contest by 13-11. This was the only set where Pitchford was able to give some fight to Sharath. But once the Indian paddler got his grip on the match, it just slipped out of hands.

India also picked up a bronze medal in the men's singles event courtesy Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, who beat England's Paul Drinkhall to claim third place.

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