Birmingham: Sharath Kamal showed age is just a number as the 40-year-old capped his best ever performance at the Commonwealth Games by winning the men's singles gold here on Monday. After losing the first game that he should have closed, Sharath beat a much younger yet experienced Liam Pitchford of England 11-13, 11-7, 11-2, 11-6, 11-8 at the NEC arena.
Sharath, who had first won the singles gold back in 2006, had already claimed two golds here in the team and mixed doubles event alongside Sreeja Akula. With this yellow metal, he increased his tally to a staggering 13 medals across five CWG appearances. In the final, he was at his finest, firing winners from both sides. Long rallies away from the table was the order of the day and Sharath won majority of them. He was also brilliant in cutting the points short with perfectly placed backhand winners.
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In what turned out to be the final game of the title clash, Sharath led 6-1 before Pitchford reduced the deficit to 5-6 by winning the best rally of the match. Sharath absorbed the pressure to make it 10-6 after time out.