MEN TEAM GETS GOLD WHILE WOMEN'S TEAM SETTLE FOR BRONZE
MEN'S Final: [1] INDIA bt [4] PAKISTAN 2/1 Mahesh Mangaonkar lost
to Nasir Iqbal 8-11, 3-11, 2-11 (29m) Saurav Ghosal bt Muhammad Asim Khan
11-5, 11-1, 11-3 (30m) Abhay Singh bt Noor Zaman 11-7, 9-11, 8-11, 11-9,
12-10 (65m)
WOMEN'S Semi-finals: [1] HONG KONG bt [3] INDIA 2/1
Chan Sin Yuk bt Tanvi Khanna 11-6, 11-7, 11-3 (22m) Tomato Ho lost to
Joshna Chinappa 11-7, 7-11, 11-9, 6-11, 8-11 (47m) Ka Yi Lee bt Anahat
Singh 11-8, 11-7, 12-10 (29m)
3rd place: [3] INDIA & [5] REPUBLIC
OF KOREA FOR BRONZE MEDAL
INDIAN MEN'S TEAM GETS BRONZE Men's Asian Games Team Championship
2018, Jakarta, Indonesia:: 27 August - 1 September 2018
Final: [3] MALAYSIA bt [1] HONG KONG CHINA 2/1 Ivan Yuen lost to Yip
Tsz Fung 7-11, 18-20, 11-9, 8-11 (69m) Nafiizwan Adnan bt Max Lee 11-9,
11-7, 11-7 (34m) Eain Yow Ng bt Leo Au 11-7, 11-7, 11-4 (36m)
3rd
place: [2] INDIA & [4] PAKISTAN
Semi-finals: [1] HONG KONG
CHINA bt [2] INDIA 2/0 Max Lee bt Saurav Ghosal 11-7, 11-9, 13-11 (41m)
Leo Au bt Harinder Pal Sandhu 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 11-3 (45m) Yip Tsz Fung v
Ramit Tandon (match withdrawn)
[3] MALAYSIA bt [4] PAKISTAN 2/0
INDIAN WOMEN'S TEAM GET SILVER Women's Asian Games Team
Championship 2018, Jakarta, Indonesia:: 27 August - 1 September 2018
Final: [2] HONG KONG CHINA bt [3] INDIA 2/0 Ho Tze-Lok
bt Sunayna Kuruvilla 11-8, 11-6, 10-12, 11-3 (40m) Annie Au bt Joshna
Chinappa 11-3, 11-9, 11-5 (28m) Joey Chan v Dipika Pallikal Karthik
(match withdrawn)
3rd place: [1] MALAYSIA & [4] JAPAN
Semi-finals: [3] INDIA bt [1] MALAYSIA 2/0 Joshna Chinappa bt Nicol
David 12-10, 11-9, 6-11, 10-12, 11-9 (66m) Dipika Pallikal Karthik bt Low
Wee Wern 11-2, 11-9, 11-7 (25m) Sunayna Kuruvilla v Sivasangari
Subramaniam (match withdrawn)
At RG Baruah Sports Complex, Guwahati, India: 8th feb
2016.
INDIVIDUAL EVENT
JOSHANA CLINCHES GOLD MEDAL AS INJURED SANDHU SETTLES FOR BRONZE
Star player Joshna Chinappa clinched the gold in women's individual squash
after beating Maria Toorpaki Wazir of Pakistan in a tense and ill-tempered
summit clash to make up for India's dis-appointment in the men's event at
the South Asian Games.
Top seed Chinappa, ranked 14th in the world, recovered from one set down to
beat second seed-ed Wazir 10-12 11-7 11-9 11-7 at the brand new squash
facility at the R G Baruah Sports Com-plex here.
With Chinappa's gold, India has so far won three medals in squash with
Sourav Ghosal and Ha-rinder Pal Singh Sandhu having grabbed a bronze each
after losing to their Pakistani opponents.
India regained
supremacy in squash winning the men’s and women’s team gold medals. Fielding strong teams with top ranked internationals like Saurav
Ghosal, Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Karthik, India usurped Pakistan which had
won the titles in the past two editions. Joshna started the winning sequence
downing Maria Toorpakai in straight games. Joshna prevailed over her
opponent 3-0 in the team event.
The final round-robin tie turned out
to be a virtual final as both India and Pakistan had won their previous
league matches against Sri Lanka and Nepal. Young Sunayana Kuruvilla had to
work hard to beat Sammer Anjum 3-2 in the second rubber to clinch the issue
for India. India won three golds (women’s individual, team and men’s team)
while Pakistan had to be content with one gold (men’s individual).
The results:
Final round-robin ties:
Men: India bt Pakistan 2-1
Saurav Ghosal bt Nasir Iqbal 11-7, 11-8, 11-7;
Ravi Dixit lost to Danish Atlas Khan 3-11, 8-11, 11-6, 6-11;
Kush Kumar bt Farhan Zaman 11-3, 11-8, 12-10
Women:
India bt Pakistan 2-0
Joshana Chinappa bt Maria Toorpakai 11-8, 4-11, 11-5, 11-9;
Men’s team give India first ever gold in
17th Asian Games squash, women’s team silver, Men’s individual silver &
Women’s individual bronze: 27/9/2014
Saurav Ghosal and
Harinder Pal Sandhu played against all odds to beat tough Malaysian
opponents 2-0 in the best-of-three men’s squash title contest to provide
India with first ever gold in Asian Games.
Giant killer Sandhu pulled
off a shocker when he upset Mohd Azlan Iskandar, who had won the singles
gold four years ago at Guangzhou, in four games after playing like a man
possessed.
He played some very good shots from the forecourt and used
the side walls beautifully to carve out a 3-1 victory to give India a great
1-0 start.
Top seed Ghosal, who had squandered the gold medal after
holding a commanding 2-0 lead and a match-ball in the third to Kuwait’s
Abdullah Almazayen earlier in the week, then fought tooth and nail to make a
comeback from 0-1 down and get the better of Malaysian veteran and former
world no 7 Ong Beng Hee 3-2 to help India snatch the gold medal.
Earlier, the Indian women were beaten 0-2 in the team final by Malaysia who
were spearheaded by world no 1 Nicol David in the gold medal contest to
settle for the silver.
Delia Arnold gave Malaysia the lead when she
defeated a fighting Anaka Alankamony 3-0 Nicol David, then, expectedly
got the better of India’s no 1 player Dipika Pallikal 3-0 to clinch the gold
medal.
India, thus, emerged with a total haul of one gold (men’s team
event), two silver (women’s team event and men’s individual event) and one
bronze (women’s individual event) from the Games, their best show thus far
in ASIAN GAMES.
ALL RESULTS: MEN’S TEAM EVENT (GOLD
MEDAL): Final: [3] INDIA bt [2] MALAYSIA 2/0 Harinder Pal
Sandhu bt Mohd Azlan Iskandar 11-8, 11-6, 8-11, 11-4 (58m) Saurav Ghosal
bt Ong Beng Hee 6-11, 11-7, 11-6, 12-14, 11-9 (88m) Mahesh Mangaonkar v
Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan (match withdrawn)
Semi-finals: [3]
INDIA bt [4] KUWAIT 2/0 Mahesh Mangaonkar bt Ammar Altamimi
11-4, 11-3, 12-10 (37m) Saurav Ghosal bt Abdullah Al Muzayen 11-8, 7-11,
11-9, 5-11, 11-3 (62m) Harinder Pal Sandhu v Ali Bader Al-Ramzi (match
withdrawn)
Pool B: [3] INDIA bt JORDAN 2/1 [3] INDIA
bt CHINA 3/0 [3] INDIA bt JAPAN 3/0 Final positions: 1 Malaysia, 2
India, 3 Jordan, 4 Japan, 5 China
WOMEN’S TEAM EVENT
(SILVER): Final: [1] MALAYSIA bt [3] INDIA 2/0 Delia
Arnold bt Anaka Alankamony 11-9, 12-10, 11-2 (43m) Nicol David bt Dipika
Pallikal 11-7, 11-6, 11-3 (29m) Low Wee Wern v Joshana Chinappa (match
withdrawn)
Semi-finals: [1] MALAYSIA bt [2] HONG KONG
CHINA 2/0 [3] INDIA bt REPUBLIC OF KOREA 2/0
17 year old Kush Kumar
became the first Indian to win a Gold medal at the 2nd Asian Youth Games
2013 being held in Nanjing, China.
Kush started off well with an
aggressive pace, but was being caught time and again by Shafeeq's delicate
drops and some awesome deceptive play. However, Kush managed to narrowly win
the first. The second was an almost one sided affair with Syafiq putting the
ball away at will.
In the third, Kush was 8-3 down. He changed to a
simple basic game at medium pace. One massive rally and Syafiq surrendered a
few easy points and the game. Kush maintained the same medium paced basic
game to take the 4th game and the Gold.
The girls finals played
first was between Hong Kong's Pansy Chan the 2nd seed and Malaysia's top
seed Vanessa Raj. Vanessa won the first easily but let down by errors in the
second.
She played much better lengths to win the third and fourth
games. Although Vanessa appeared tired she just about managed to secure the
last two points and the gold medal for Malaysia.
Boy’s
Final: [1] Kush Kumar (IND) bt [2] Mohd Syafiq Kamal (MAS) 11-9,
5-11, 11-9, 11-7 (57m)
[2] HONG KONG CHINA bt [4] JAPAN 2/1 Chan Ho-Ching bt Ayaka Shiraishi 11-1, 11-4,
11-2 Pansy Chan lost to Satomi Watanabe 9-11, 9-11,
10-12 Choi Uen Shan bt Momoka Nakahira 11-5, 11-5,
11-6
Indian boys win squash silver at
Asian Youth Games, Nanjing (China): 23/8/2013
India went down 1-2 to Malaysia in the
final to settle for the silver medal in the boys squash
team event at the Asian Youth Games.
The Indians
fought all the way in a match that could have gone
either way, but the Malaysians delivered when it
mattered most, winning the opening two singles matches
in the fifth game before Darren Ti Lunn Chan closed the
tie defeating Madhav Yogesh Dhingra 3-1.
Final: [2] MALAYSIA bt [1] INDIA 2/1 Ng
Eain Yow lost to Vijay Meena Kumar 11-5, 11-7, 9-11,
6-11, 5-11 (64m) Mohd Syafiq Kamal bt Kush Kumar
11-4, 7-11, 11-3, 10-12, 11-6 (55m) Darren Chan bt
Madhav Dhingra 11-3, 8-11, 11-7, 11-1 (37m)
Semi-finals: [1] INDIA bt [3] HONG KONG CHINA
2/1 Madhav Dhingra lost to Tsz Kwan Lau
11-6, 9-11, 6-11, 7-11 (45m) Kush Kumar bt Yuen
Tsun-Hei 11-5, 11-5, 1-11, 11-13, 11-8 (59m) Vijay
Meena Kumar bt Chris Lo 8-11, 13-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-8
(66m)
[2] MALAYSIA bt [5] JORDAN 2/0 Darren Chan bt Ali Assaf 11-6, 11-5, 11-7 (21m)
Mohd Syafiq Kamal bt Mohammad Alsaraj 11-7, 11-4, 9-11,
3-11, 14-12 (56m)
Women's team :
Final: MALAYSIA bt HONG KONG 2/0 Low Wee
Wern bt Rebecca Chiu 11-4, 7-11, 11-6, 11-9 (54m)
Nicol David bt Annie Au 11-8, 11-7, 11-6 (33m) Semi-finals: MALAYSIA bt INDIA 2/0 Low Wee Wern bt Anaka Alankamony 11-2, 11-4,
11-6 (22m) Nicol David bt Joshna Chinappa 11-4, 11-2,
11-3 (18m) HONG KONG bt SOUTH KOREA 2/0 Rebecca Chiu bt Park Eun Ok 11-5, 12-10, 11-8
(31m) Annie Au bt Song Sun-Mi 11-7, 11-2, 11-4 (22m)
Hum
main hain dum! Article in Mid-day : December 13, 2006
DOHA: Indian squash made
history yesterday, with Saurav Ghosal becoming the first ever Indian to be
on course for a medal in the sport at the Asian Games. In his quest, Ghosal
beat countrymate Ritwik Bhattacharya in the quarter-final and is now assured
of at least a bronze. However, India’s top two seeds believe this is just
the beginning.
Ill-fated collision
“Another couple of years and we will be in the top 20 squash players of
the world,” Bhattacharya, who is currently ranked 45 in the world, told
MiD DAY at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex yesterday.
He went down 1-3 (9-4, 9-0, 6-9, 9-7) to Ghosal in what was an
“unfortunate” collision of both Indians in the penultimate stage of the
tournament. “It’s so unfortunate that we had to play each other in the
quarters. If not then at least one of us would have a better chance of going
for the silver or maybe even the gold,” said Ghosal.
No coaches
However, Bhattacharya feels Indian squash can only go ahead from here. “We
may not have too many courts back home to practice on right now, but they
are coming up in quite a few places across India, namely Delhi, Mumbai,
Chennai, etc. The current problem however is a dearth of proper coaches in
India. That’s an area we must improve on,” said Bhattacharya.
Another factor that could help Indian squash improve is increased
interaction with neighbours Pakistan, who have a rich history, when it comes
to producing world class squash players like the Jehangir and the Jamsher
Khans. “There should be more tournaments between India and Pak. This
exchange of ideas and strategies will benefit both countries,” said
Bhattacharya.
No pressure
Meanwhile, Ghosal desperately wants to win his semi-final match against top
seed Ong Beng Hee of Malaysia, who is currently ranked 18 in the world and
has a career best ranking of 7. “Hee is a very good player. Though I go
into the match without any pressure, as he is the top seed, I would like to
win here. It will be the best thing to happen to Indian squash,” added
Ghosal.
South Asian Games
Squash Championship At Colombo, Sri
Lanka : 26/08/2006
Zaman & Chinappa Retain
South Asian Games Titles
Pakistan's Mansoor Zaman
and India's Joshna Chinappa successfully defended their
squash titles in the South Asian Games at the Gymkhana
Club in Sri Lanka's largest city Colombo.
Left-hander Zaman, the world No28 from Peshawar, faced
16-year-old compatriot Aamir Atlas Khan in the final
after both players beat 3/4 seeds from India - Harinder
Pal Sandhu and Gaurav Nandrajog, respectively - in the
semi-finals.
Second seed Khan shocked his more
experienced top-seeded opponent by taking a 2/1 lead in
the final – but Zaman regained his composure to win 9-5,
7-9, 4-9, 9-2, 9-0 to retain the title he won two years
ago in Islamabad, in his home country.
In the
women's final, 19-year-old Joshna Chinappa from Chennai
took on 14-year-old rising star Dipika Pallikal, also
from Chennai. The two top-seeded Indians had overcome
their anticipated opponents – Sri Lankan 3/4 seeds,
sisters Tehani Guruge and Nirasha Guruge – in the
previous round.
Favourite Chinappa was too strong
for Pallikal in the final, winning 9-6, 9-6, 9-1.
