GOLD COAST: Satwik Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty today claimed India’s first ever medal in men’s doubles after settling for a silver at the 21st Commonwealth Games’ badminton competition here today.
Satwik and Chirag lost 13-21 16-21 to Rio Olympics bronze medallist English pair of Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge in a 39-minute men’s doubles final at the Carrara Sports Arena.
With the silver clinched by Satwik and Chirag, India ended their highly successful badminton campaign with six medals, which include the mixed team event gold.
Earlier, Saina Nehwal clinched her second CWG gold medal after defeating P V Sindhu in the women’s singles final, while Kidambi Srikanth settled for a silver after losing narrowly to three-time Olympic silver medallist Lee Chong Wei in men’s singles final.
Yesterday, Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy bagged a bronze medal in the women’s doubles event.
At 17 and 20 respectively, Satwik and Chirag form a formidable pair. It was the Tata Open India International Challenge win that brought them into limelight in 2016.
They also won in Mauritius and Bangladesh, but their biggest win came last year when they clinched the Vietnam Open International Challenge. They had managed to topple former Olympic and world champion Markis Kido and his partner Hendra Gunawan en route the title.
They also qualified for the Glasgow World Championship and managed to reach the quarterfinals at the Korea Open and the French Open.
This year, Satwik and Chirag made it to the semifinals at Indonesia Masters and All England quarterfinals. (AGENCIES)
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