- By Himanshu Badola
- Sun, 01 Oct 2023 07:52 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
India's dream of bagging their first-ever gold in Badminton men's event was shattered by the hosts China as they settled for a Silver Medal after suffering a 3-2 defeat in the thrilling and exciting final on Sunday.
Mithun Manjunath who was roped in as a replacement for injured key player HS Prannoy was completely humbled by China's Weng Hong Yang who won the final clash 2-0 (21-12, 21-4.
It was a historic and heartbreaking moment for the Indian team at the same time as they improved their achievement to a silver medal at the continental meet in the specific event.
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The hosts bounced back remarkably despite going 0-2 down after the first two matches.
Talking about the match, India's badminton sensation Lakshya Sen defeated world No. 6 Shi Yuqi 22-20, 14-21, 21-18 in the opening match of the summit clash to give his team a promising 1-0 lead.
The 22-year-old Indian shuttler won a thrilling contest in the first game but went down in the second game. Lakshya Sen was trailing by 8-13 in the third game as well but bounced back brilliantly to win the match.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty added to India's lead as they made it 2-0 after beating Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang. The Indian pair was in great rhythm from the get-go and controlled both games in the match as India needed just one victory to seal the victory.
The hosts bounced back in a remarkable manner as Li Shifeng beat former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth 24-22, 21-9. Liu Yuchen and Ou Xuanyi, meanwhile, claimed a 21-6, 21-5 win against Dhruv Kapila and Sai Pratheek.
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The Indian team came out to the summit clash aiming for their first-ever gold in badminton at the continental meet but they suffered a blow ahead of the match as Prannoy was ruled out due to an injury.
Notably, PV Sindhu had won a silver medal at Jakarta 2018, which was India's best-ever result before this victory.