Somdev wins second gold, creates history

SOMDEV HAS won India’s 7^th gold, a second for him after he grabbed a gold yesterday in the doubles event with Sanam Singh.

The duo bashed out Gong Maoxin and Li Zhe of China and followed in to the footsteps of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi. They sailed into o the semi-finals after winning this gold medal, taking India’s gold to 6.
And today, Somdev becomes the first-ever Indian to win a gold at a men’s singles tennis event at the Asian Games.
Today’s match was against Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan and the match belonged to Somdev right from the start.
Somdev, whose international ranking is 106 faced Istomin, who achieved a world-ranking of 39 this year. Somdev was totally in form right from the beginning and it seemed Istomin was just not playing the part. Somdev shunned Istomin 6-1 6-2.
This gold can be called one of the most precious ones as it’s the first ever in its category. Somdev has surely created history for India.
What is interesting is that this historic gold has come from a rather lesser known face of Tennis and not from Leander Paes or our own BHupathi or even Sania. Its time we realized our potential truly and gave equal importance to all players. Somdev has outdone himself by taking on the way he did to the world no 39, Istomin in today’s match.
India’s medal tally now is 37 with 7 gold medals, 12 silver and 18 bronze.  India stands tall at 6^th position sharing it with Thailand. If Thailand wins another gold it could beat India to the 6^th position.
China sits comfortably at the top position with a whopping 311 medals comprising of 157 gold medals. Following China are Korea with 182 medals at 2^nd position and Japan at the 3^rd position with 158 medals.

 

Read More>> Asian Games 2010