Birmingham: The Indian women’s lawn bowls team bagged a historic gold medal at the Commonwealth Games today, the unheralded quartet pulling the sport from obscurity to limelight with its inspiring show.
The team of Lovely Choubey (lead), Pinki (second), Nayanmoni Saikia (third) and Rupa Rani Tirkey (skip) overcame a mid-match slump to beat South Africa 17-10 in the women’s fours final. The team had turned some heads after its surprise win over New Zealand on Monday, and its incredible campaign culminated in the best possible manner.
This is India’s fourth gold and first outside the weightlifting arena in this edition. The Indians led 8-2 at one stage but the South Africans — comprising Thabelo Muvhango (lead), Bridget Calitz (second), Esme Kruger (third) and Johanna Snyman (skip) — made it 8-8 to spice up the contest.
However, the Indians kept their nerves to pull away in the last three rounds.
Ranchi’s Lovely, who is the leader of the pack, is a constable with the Jharkhand Police while statemate Rupa works in the Sports Department.
Pinki is a sports teacher with DPS RK Puram in New Delhi, while Nayanmoni comes from a farming family in Assam and works with the state’s Forest Department.
The players would now expect that the gold-winning performance will “open the doors” for further progress of the game. Lovely, who will turn 42 tomorrow, said the success in Birmingham will go a long way in raising the profile of the sport.
“We wanted to do something not only just for this team but for India. We knew that without medal, doors will remain shut. Now doors have opened. I thank media, our federation, IOA, our manager Anju madam for support,” Lovely said. “Anju madam gave us the freedom to select our shots and make decisions. It made it easy for us,” she added.
Pinki, 41, was naturally ecstatic. “The hard work has finally paid off today, we have created history. We knew that gold will create more impact, so we are happy,” she said.
Nayanmoni said the team did not lose heart after the South Africans staged a comeback to make it 8-8.
The skip (Rupa) told us we can do it because we are a good team. We should not lose focus and enthusiasm and it will be done,” said Nayanmoni. Team manager Anju Luthra said their toil has finally culminated in happy memories.
“We were losing from very close. I have been with this team since 2010 Games. The margins of defeats were not much in previous editions. We were losing by one point and that was not letting us sleep. We were determined to do something this time. We have created history and this is the luckiest day in Indian lawn bowls history,” she said.—PTI
