Determined to keep their crown in the men’s table tennis event, India beat Nigeria in a flawless 3-0 semi-final win last night to book their place in the final of the men’s table tennis event of the ongoing 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
The trio of Quadri Aruna, Olajide Omotayo and Bode Abiodun were no match to the Indian’s trio of Sharath Achanta, Harmeet Desai and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran as the defending champion beat Nigeria 3-0 to book their place in the final.
It was Abiodun and Omotayo that started with the doubles match but they were overpowered by the Indian duo of Desai and Gnanasekaran 3-0 (11-6, 11-7, 11-7).
Aruna tried his best against experienced Achanta but it was the older Indian that won 3-1 11-9, 7-11, 11-8, 15-13).
Omotayo wanted to restore Nigeria into the game but he was stopped by Gnanasekaran 3-1 (11-9, 4-11, 11-6, 11-8) to set up a final clash against Singapore later today.
Host England had earlier in the day lost 3-2 to Singapore and will today slug it out against Nigeria England for the bronze medal match of the table tennis event of Birmingham 2022.
Nigeria and England will open the day with the bronze medal match while India and Singapore will compete for the gold medal later in the day.
Meanwhile, Singapore claimed their first gold medal of Birmingham 2022 with victory over Malaysia in the Women’s Team Table Tennis.
Jingyi Zhou and Jian Zeng set the ball rolling with a 3-1 win over Karen Lyne and Ying Ho in the doubles.Tianwei Feng then scored a comprehensive 3-0 win over Li Sian Alice Chang in the first singles match.
And the gold was wrapped up when Jian beat Ying Ho 3-1 to give Singapore an unassailable 3-0 advantage while Australia claimed the bronze medal after a 3-0 win over Wales.
The singles event begins tomorrow.