Birmingham: World Championships silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth and young women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand signed off with bronze medals in the badminton competition of the Commonwealth Games here on Sunday.
Srikanth, a former world No. 1, made amends for his semifinal loss as he prevailed over Singapore's world No. 87 Jia Heng Teh 21-15, 21-18 to claim a bronze medal to go with the silver that he had won four years ago in Gold Coast.
Keralite Treesa and Gayatri registered a 21-15, 21-18 win over world No. 159 Australian pair of Wendy Hsuan-Yu Chen and Gronya Somerville to finish on the podium in their first major event together as a combination.
Srikanth said he was happy to return with a medal after losing the semifinals.
"I came thinking that I can win the gold but it didn't go the way I thought. After winning the first game, I was leading 19-18 (semifinals), probably if I had scored the next point, things would have been different. But yes, I'm happy that at least I was able to win a medal," he told PTI.
"It was such a tough outing. After almost winning the semi-final and losing it from a point to come back and play for a bronze, it's been tough and exhausting. I just wanted to win the medal.
"It's a big event. Nobody wants to give up easily after coming this far, everybody knows one-two points can change the moment. It was about staying focused and score next three-four points. I was not thinking about anything else.”
