Mumbai: IndianOil sports champions delivered record performance by winning 11 medals (4 Gold, 4 Silver and 3 Bronze medals) in Commonwealth Games (CWG) 2018. IndianOil’s Table Tennis stars Manika Batra with two Gold Medals, a Silver and a Bronze each for a total of four medals and A Sharath Kamal with a Gold, a Silver and a Bronze each for a tally of three Medals, were in the forefront of India’s magnificent showing at the just concluded 21st CWG 2018 at Gold Coast, Australia. Not far behind were our shuttlers, K Srikanth who bagged Gold and a Silver and N Sikki Reddy who claimed Gold and a Bronze. Mehuli Ghosh who is our scholarship player missed Gold by a whisker and had to settle for Silver in the Women’s 10 Mtr Air Rifle event.
Most creditable was the performance of IndianOil’s Table Tennis and Badminton players. A Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra spearheaded the TT challenge in the Team Championships as India claimed its maiden Men’s and Women’s team Gold medals. Subsequently, the 22 year old Manika Batra, the rising star of Indian Table Tennis, created history by becoming the first Indian Woman TT player to win a Singles Gold Medal at the Commonwealth Games. It was really incredible that she beat the current World No. 4, Tianwei Feng from Singapore twice, once during the Women’s Team Championship and again in the Women’s Singles semi-final. She also went on to secure the Women’s Doubles Silver, partnering Mouma Das (a first for India in Women’s Doubles) and the Mixed Doubles Bronze with G Sathiyan. 2006 CWG Men’s Singles Gold Medallist, the vastly experienced Sharath Kamal won the Men’s Team Championship Gold to go with the Men’s Doubles Silver and Men’s Singles Bronze. Guiding India’s fortunes in Table Tennis was another IOCian, former international player and current coach, Soumyadeep Roy.
In Badminton, the recently crowned World No. 1, K Srikanth led the way alongwith doubles specialist N Sikki Reddy to script history by claiming India’s Mixed Team Championship Gold for the first time ever defeating defending champions, Malaysia. In doing so, Srikanth beat the veteran and former World No. 1, Lee Chong Wei in straight games. However, in the Men’s Singles event, Srikanth had to settle for Silver as Lee extracted revenge by getting the better of him in three hard fought games. N Sikki Reddy claimed the Women’s Doubles Bronze for India with Ashwini Ponnappa. Former All England winner and IOCian, Pullela Gopichand was at hand to mentor the Indian Badminton team as the Chief National Coach.
IndianOil had its representation in Hockey (India finished fourth) in the form of Kothajit Singh and Gurinder Singh, both defenders while in Athletics, our scholarship player, Amoj Jacob qualified for the final round in the 4×400 Mtr relay.
IndianOil Chairman, Mr. Sanjiv Singh congratulated the IndianOil players for their performance in the Commonwealth Games, he said, “Our sportspersons have undoubtedly shown commendable determination, grit and ambition for achievement, and this was instrumental in their success. I am confident that in the future, too, our sportspersons will continue to strive hard and prove their merit so as to keep our national flag flying high in the international arena.”
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