NEW DELHI: India's Parupalli Kashyap defeated compatriot Chetan Anand to win a bronze in the badminton singles event of the Commonwealth Games on Wednesday.
Sixth seed Kashyap, who was playing in his first Commonwealth Games, survived a scar in the second game to scrap past third seed Chetan 21-15, 21-18 in the third place play off at the Siri Fort sport complex.
In the first game, Kashyap led 11-7 as Chetan suffered a series of unforced errors to allow Kashyap swell his lead before pocketing it comfortably.
In the second game, Chetan came back strongly and was leading 11-6 but soon he started faltering at the nets and mistakes of the first game against started to haunt him as Kashyap clawed back at 16-16 and then moved ahead 18-16.
A net dribble and a half smash took Kashyap to 20-18 and it was all over for Chetan after he hit the net as the 24-year-old burst into tears of joy amid the boisterous crowd who backed him all along.
"I am very happy to win this medal. I dedicate my win to my coach Bhaskar Babu and Gopichand and also to all the staff and supporters who have helped me in my career," Kashyap said after the match.
Kashyap said his semifinal loss to Rajiv Ouseph played on his mind and troubled him a lot but he was happy he could exorcise those thoughts and win on Wednesday.
"I have lost so many tournaments from winning positions. It happened in the Vietnam Open, Singapore Open and also in the Asian Championship in 2009 when I lost to Bao Chunlai after leading. It is a horrible feeling. So the thought of losing the semifinal kept troubling me last night," he said.
"Even today I was thinking about it but I told myself I won't commit the same mistakes. So I kept pushing the shuttle behind and it worked. If I would have done even half of what I did today, I could have won it yesterday," he added.
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