Kathmandu: India added one more gold and a silver to the medal’s tally on Tuesday at the end of the Squash events in the South Asian Games being held here.
On the final day, the men’s and women’s teams played their final and decisive round robin league matches and while the women beat Pakistan 2-1 for the gold, the men counterparts went down to Pakistan 1-2 to settle for the silver. The highlight of the women team’s triumph was the resolute show of Tanvi Khanna, who came on to the court with the tie score 1-1. Though a touch of uncertainty caught up with her briefly, Tanvi defeated Faiza Zafar over four games to signal India’s second gold in squash. The first gold had come through Tanvi in the singles event held prior to the team event competition. For India, Sunayna Kuruvilla played the first match and she put India 1-0 up after beating Moqadaas Ashraf. However Sanya Vats failed against Madina Zafar and went down fighting. The stage was then set for Tanvi to take the lead role and she turned the star performer.
Later in the men’s competition, Harinder Pal Sandhu could not stand up to Tayyab Aslam and put India in the defensive. Even though Abhishek Pradhan then made amends by beating Muhammad Asim Khan over five well contested games. The win did not inspire Abhay Singh coming next and he lost to Farhan Mahboob and India’s quest ended.
India thus ended its squash campaign with two golds, three silver and one bronze.
The results: Men: India lost to Pakistan 1-2 (Harinder Pal Sandhu lost to Tayyab Aslam 11-5, 6-11, 4-11, 10-12; Abhishek Pradhan beat Muhammad Asim Khan 11-9, 4-11, 11-4, 5-11, 11-4; Abhay Singh lost to Farhan Mehboob 8-11, 10-12, 5-11); Women: India bt Pakistan 2-1 (Sunayna Kuruvilla bt Moaqadaas Ashraf 11-5, 11-8, 11-9; Sanya Vats lost to Madina Zafar 9-11, 11-13, 7-11; Tanvi Khanna bt Faiza Zafar 11-5, 4-11, 11-4, 11-5)
