South Asian Games: Indian men’s badminton team wins gold, women reach final

Indian men’s badminton team expectedly claimed the gold medal after beating Sri Lanka 3-1 in the finals of the 13th South Asian Games in Kathmandu on Monday.

K Srikanth started the proceedings for the defending champions and had to fight back from a game down to beat the experienced Dinuka Karunaratne 17-21, 21-15, 21-11 in the opening match. Siril Verma then gave India a 2-0 lead after his opponent Sachin Dias retired with the scoreline reading 21-17, 11-5 in the Indian’s favour.

Arun George and Sanyam Shukla, however, suffered a 18-21, 21-14, 11-21 loss to Sachin and B Tharindu D Dumbukola Goonathilake as Sri Lanka grabbed one point to make it 1-2.