S’pore paddlers clinch men’s team gold

SINGAPORE — Singapore claimed a third gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, after the national men’s table tennis team beat England 3-1 in the final yesterday.

The Republic’s men’s team had earlier beaten Nigeria by the same margin in the semi-final on Sunday.

Yesterday, Singapore’s Zhan Jian got off to a jittery start, losing two of the first three sets to Paul Drinkhall, but eventually came from behind to win the game 3-2 (5-11, 11-5, 6-11, 11-7, 11-2). Gao Ning then made it 2-0 up for Singapore by the second game as he swept aside Liam Pitchford 3-0 (11-9, 13-11, 11-3).

However, Gao did not manage to win in the doubles with team-mate Li Hu as they lost 3-1 (11-8, 6-11, 8-11, 3-11) to Andrew Baggaley and Paul Drinkhall. It was Zhan who secured the gold for Singapore when he beat Baggaley 3-0 (11-4, 11-8, 11-9).

The Republic’s paddlers had already won the women’s team gold on Sunday. It is Singapore’s third gold at the Games, after shooter Teo Shun Xie also triumphed in the women’s 10m air pistol last week. ADELENE WONG