Pokhara: Indian men's and women's badminton team expectedly claimed gold medals after beating Sri Lanka in its respective finals at the 13th South Asian Games (SAG) here on Monday.
The men's team, led by Kidambi Srikanth, defeated Sri Lanka 3-1 in the finals, while the women's side blanked the same opponents 3-0 in the summit clash to make it a double bonanza for India.
- Srikanth started the proceedings for the men's team, struggling past Dinuka Karunaratne 17-21 21-15 21-11 in the opening match. Siril Verma then gave India a 2-0 lead after his opponent Sachin Premashan retired with the scoreline reading 21-17 11-5 in the Indian's favour.
Arun George and Sanyam Shukla, however, suffered an 18-21 21-14 11-21 loss to Sachin and B Tharindu Goonathilake as Sri Lanka grabbed one point to make it 1-2.
Krishna Prasad Garaga and Dhruv Kapila then completed the win with a 21-14 21-18 win over Karunaratne and Hasitha Chanaka in the second doubles match.
In the women's final, Ashmita Chaliha, Aakarshi Kashyap and Gayatri Gopichand claimed victories in the three singles to give India a 3-0 win against Sri Lanka.
Earlier in the day, the men's team mauled Pakistan 3-0 with doubles pair of Arun George and Sanyam Shukla, singles players Krishna Prasad Garanga and Siril Varma registering easy wins.
While Arun and Sanyam beat Raja Muhammad Hasnain and Atique Muhammad 21-12 21-12, Siril thrashed Zahid Awais 21-7 21-7 and Krishna Prasad Garanga overcame Ali Murad 21-19 21-18.