Koneru happy with her performance at Doha Games

Hyderabad, Dec 15: Double gold medalist Koneru Humpy is on cloud nine after her stupendous showing in the Doha Asian Games.

Talking to ''UNI'' here today on her arrival from Doha along with her team mate P Harikrishna, she said, ''Winning Gold medals for the country itself is a great achievement and winning the first and the last Gold of the Games in chess for the country is something special for me.'' ''I have won lot of titles in international events, but winning at Asian Games with country's tri-colour fluttering and national anthem being played was a great feeling for me,'' she said.

On her performance at the Game, she said, ''I am satisfied with my performance in the rapid event than before. Though I lost the sixth game to Chinese player Zhao Xue, I managed to bounce back and do well in classic event.'' ''We never won against China earlier. But this time we were determined to do better and had done best against them. Harikrishna, Sasikiran and myself discussed lot of things during the practice and trained accordingly,'' she said.

About her future plans, she said, ''I plan to play in open international tournaments.''

P Harikrishna said, ''Though China was considered the favourite in the team event being the runners up in the previous chess olympiad, we started the event in a good note and finished it well.'' ''Our practice and team spirit paved the way for our victory. The pre-tournament camp organised with Israeli G M Lev Psakhis helped us a lot,'' he said.

''In rapid event it was smooth riding till I was defeated by the Chinese player Wang Yue in the sixth round and lost the rhythm with the defeat to Vietnam's G M Dao Thien Hai in the eighth round.

''Infact, I had lost the game that I was supposed to win. But in the Classical event, I maintained upper hand,'' he said.

On his future assignments, he said he would take part in the ACP rapid knock-out tournament in Ukraine.

Commenting on crowd support he said, ''I was happy to see lot of Indians at the venue supporting us. It was something special for me winning medal at the Asian Games representing the Country.'' Later, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy greeted them at his office, when they called on him.

UNI