The Hindu : Sport / Badminton : Chetan clinches bronze

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 26, 2006

Sport

Sport - Badminton

Chetan clinches bronze

Melbourne: Fourth seed Chetan Anand outlasted England's Aamir Ghaffar 2-1 to win the bronze in the men's badminton competition of the Commonwealth Games here on Saturday.

However, in the women's section, the Indian pair of Saina Nehwal and Trupti Murgunde lost the bronze medal match to the second-seeded English pair of Donna Kellogg and Gali Emms 14-21, 9-21.

Chetan played to a plan and had come prepared for his rival's style of play. The bearded Ghaffar had beaten the Indian in the team event and the fourth seed returned the compliment with a 21-17, 18-21, 21-13 victory in 46 minutes.

Fulfilling the hopes

Chetan put down his win to a better mental strength. ``There has been a lot of hopes on me back home for the last three to four years, so I am very happy. This medal means a lot to me,'' he said.

``I've been working very hard for the last seven or eight months training hard for this. I have become mentally stronger and I just focus match by match.''

Chetan emerged winner with his deft strokeplay. The Indian attacked Ghaffar's weak defence and returns. He also managed to slow down the pace of the game and dictated the proceedings.

Ghaffar played very fast but fumbled at the net. He also conceded several negative points.

Chetan rattled the England player with his superb smashes to the corners. — UNI

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