Achanta Sharath Kamal came to the 2022 edition with nine medals placed proudly in the cabinet back home. Now he takes back four more to make it 13, of which more than half – seven – are gold.
Achanta Sharath Kamal won three gold medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games including in men’s singles. AP
Birmingham: Sharath Kamal was very tired. He said he needed to catch up on sleep and just relax. The past two weeks had been very tiring, yet they had been ‘best two weeks of his life’. He had just crossed 40 last month, but this fortnight he won four medals, three of them gold, from four events.
He came to the 2022 edition with nine medals placed proudly in the cabinet back home. Now he takes back four more to make it 13, of which more than half – seven – are gold.
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“It’s a dream. It is amazing and I don’t have words to describe it,” said Sharath, who brought with himself a chair while talking to the media.
Sharath, who will also be carrying the Indian flag at the Closing Ceremony, alongside Nikhat Zareen, was thrilled at being given the honour. “It is not just an honour for me, but for table tennis also,” he said.
Sharath, whose first and only other CWG singles gold came 16 years ago in 2006 in Melbourne, now has company with the 2022 edition. Making the age-old cliché – Age is just a number – come true, he beat the 29-year-old Englishman Liam Pitchford 4-1 (11-13, 11-7, 11-2, 11-6, 11-8).
Last night, Pitchford beat G Sathiyan in the semi-finals and prevented an all-India final.
Sathiyan, who, like Sharath, is ranked in the Top-40 of the world, won the bronze in men’s singles beating Paul Drinkhall 4-3. Sathiyan won the first three games 11-9, 11-3, 11-5 but lost the next three. Then he had to fight hard to win the seventh and final game 11-9 for the bronze.
Sharath’s four medals in Birmingham, comprising three gold and a silver, took his tally to overall 13. It includes seven gold, three each of silver and bronze. Sharath’s final golden fling in the men’s singles equalled the record of 13 medals held by Feng Tianwei of Singapore. Feng won the women’s singles last night to set a target and within 24 hours, Sharath had joined her at the summit.
A beaming but exhausted Sharath said, “I have no energy left. I am drained. I feel like the orange is completely squeezed, the juice is completely out. But it has been a fantastic two weeks.”
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The only event in which he failed to win gold here was the men’s doubles (with Sathiyan). He quickly smiled and said, “But I can’t be so greedy.”
Paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal clinched gold in the men’s singles final, beating England’s Liam Pitchford 4-1. AP
On how he plans to stretch his career, Sharath, laughed and said, “Give me time. I am taking it one day at a time. Through these Games I focussed on recovery and that helped me play on. My body was not in the best shape, but I saw the physio every day and worked hard on it. Even in the singles match there was a time when I did not want to do anything that could hurt my back.”
Sharath should have won the first game where he was leading 10-6 at one point. But after the first two sets, I felt like I had the match in my hands. But he was still coming back.”
Then he candidly added, “If you see the last set, I was so excited. I was almost thinking about how to celebrate the win and he was just coming back at me.” No one can grudge him that.
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Late on Sunday, Sharath Kamal and Sreeja Akula, playing her first CWG, gave India its first-ever CWG mixed doubles gold medal. They beat the fancied Malaysian pair Javen Choong and Karen Lyne, who had beaten Sathiyan and Manika Batra earlier. Sharath and Sreeja beat Javen Choong and Karen Lyne 11-4, 9-11, 11-5, 11-6.
Sreeja said, “I was disappointed at losing the singles bronze in the play-off but Sharath was amazing as we won the mixed doubles gold. If we lost a point because of him, he would say sorry; and even if we lost a point because of me, he would say sorry. He was just amazing and so inspiring.”
That indeed was the story of table tennis in Birmingham 2022 – the amazing Achanta Sharath Kamal. A legend who refuses to call time on a game he loves so much.
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