Neha-Soumi, Soumyajit-Sathiyan win golds in TT doubles

Pune, Oct 15 (UNI) In the best match of the competition, Neha Aggarwal and Soumi Mondal held their nerves to thwart a spirited challenge, while among the boys, Soumyajit Ghosh and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran clinched the gold medal in an All-India final of the Table Tennis competition at the Commonwealth Youth Games here tonight.

Neha and Soumi had their backs to the wall but the two made a thrilling come back to overpower Divya and Pooja 3-2 (7-11, 7-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-9) in a nerve wrecking match and win the gold medal.

Soumyajit and Sathiyan, however, did not find the going that tough as they beat another Indian duo of Raj Mondal and Shubham Sharma 3-0 (11-4, 11-5, 11-8).

Neha and Soumi, who had an easy terrain till the finals, were down by two games and needed a special effort to lift themselves and defy the local challenge of Divya and Pooja who were looking really good to win the title clash.

Both the pairs fought till the last moment and every point had to be earned with no one ready to give any breathing space to their opponents.

Divya and Pooja had a splendid run to the finals but fell just short at the last hurdle with Neha and Soumi proving why they were the top seeded pair in the competition.

After the two pairs were locked 2-2, the last game saw some thrilling moments as Divya faulted a couple of times with a few of her smashes finding no space on the table much to the liking of her rivals.

However, with nerves under control, Neha and Soumi still had to play some special shots so as to stop the resistance from their Indian rivals.

In the boys doubles, Soumyajit and Sathiyan were good enough to win the summit clash without any hiccups and the duo might see each other face to face in the singles final if they don't make exits before that.

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