The Indian duo defeated English pair in two games to win the medal
England's Jenny Duncalf, right, and Laura Massaro, second left, in action against India's Dipika Pallikal, left, and Joshana Chinappa during their women's doubles squash match during the 2014 Commonwealth Games (Photo: AP)
Glasgow: Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal clinched historic gold medal in the womens doubles final of the squash event at the Commonwealth Games after they outplayed Jenny Duncalf and Laura Massaro of England in Glasgow on Saturday. The fifth-seeded Indian pair made defeated their English opponents 11-6 11-8 in the best-of-three game final.
After winning the first game easily the Indians pair looked in spot of bother in second game as they trailed their opponents 7-2, but the pair made remarkable comeback as Dipika and Joshana played some great drop shots to outsmart their opponents and win the match very easily. "We are really excited, not only for us but for Indian squash in general," said Pallikal, who missed her home Games in Delhi four years ago due to illness.
"We have been in the shadows for a very long time and hopefully this can open up to a lot of girls. "Even when we were down in the second game we still had the belief that we could do it and we never wanted to let go of any point. And I guess that is what made the difference. We could have come out 1-1 and a third game would have been very tough."I think just that desire kept us going. We have come so far that we didn't want to settle for silver. We don't like silver, we like only gold.
I don't think it has sunk in yet." "Hopefully this will bring more recognition to squash in India," added Chinappa. "It's definitely growing leaps and bounds but hopefully now, winning a medal, the government will be that much more excited about the sport as well."
Duncalf and Massaro had settled for silver in the 2010 edition of the Games in Delhi. India stay fifth with their gold count improving to 14 and the overall tally to 55 (25 silver and 16 bronze).
( Source : PTI )
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