By Bharat Sharma
New Delhi, Dec 14 (PTI) Indian squash never had it better than 2014 as a bagful of firsts, highlighted by a gold each in the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, marked a highly successful year for the racquet sport.
While the big three — Dipika Pallikal, Joshana Chinappa and Saurav Ghosal — were always expected to do the bulk of the job, it was pleasing to see Harinder Pal Sandhu emerge from their shadows.
The 25-year-old from Mohali set up a memorable gold medal feat for India in the men’s team event at the Incheon Asian Games by dismissing defending champion Mohd Azlan Iskandar in the opening singles. Ghosal then got past the experienced Ong Beng Hee, triggering wild victory celebrations.
The win also lessened Ghosal’s pain of losing the singles gold medal clash from a commanding position.
The men’s team gold had capped off India’s historic show at the Games, where it ended up winning medals in all four categories on offer.
Kolkata-based Ghosal summed up his season.
“This year for me was all about Commonwealth and Asian Games. The huge disappointment in the Asian Games was not winning the individual gold medal. I was so very close and losing the final will always hurt,” Ghosal told PTI.
“However, I’m really happy I could bounce back from that disappointment and help India and my team win our first ever gold medal at the Asian Games. It is my biggest achievement to date and I will always cherish the moment we won,” he recalled.
The women trio of Pallikal, Chinappa and Anaka Alankamony stood a step lower on the podium at Incheon but the silver showing was enough to achieve something that had not been done before.
Pallikal, the first from her country to break into the world top 10, added to her competition tally by edging teammate Chinappa in an intense quarterfinal for the bronze medal.
