Jwala Gutta won a double crown as the Indian shuttlers launched the nation's medal campaign at the South Asian Games on a spectacular note, sweeping all the five gold medals at stake on the opening day of the competition in Colombo on Friday.
The country's domination in the discipline was complete, with four of the five finals being all-India affairs. Besides the gold, Indian shuttlers bagged four silver medals to boost their kitty at the Sugathadasa indoor stadium.
Top-ranked Chetan Anand and Trupti Murgunde kept their reputation intact, winning the singles titles in the men's and women's singles respectively after Anand's better half Gutta partnered V Diju to clinch the mixed doubles gold.
Gutta was back on court soon after in the company of Shruti Kurien to corner glory in the women's doubles, before the top Indian men's doubles team of Sanave Thomas and Rupesh
Kumar overcame the challenge of a Sri Lankan combination, the only non-Indian flavour in the day's finals.
Diju and Gutta won the mixed doubles honours, beating Thomas Kurien and Aparna Balan 21-11, 21-13.
A bout of viral fever notwithstanding, Murgunde outplayed B R Meenakshi 11-5, 21-14 while Anand overcame Nikhil Kanetkar in a hotly contested singles final, winning 21-14, 21-12.
The women's doubles title round saw Gutta and Shruti Kurien overcome a first game reverse to tame compatriot Aparna Balan and Meenakshi 18-21, 23-21, 21-12.
In the men's doubles final, Sanave and Kumar coasted to a 21-16, 21-10 victory over the hosts' pair of Tushara Eidiresinghe and Duminda Jayakodi.
"The game wasn't very good, I also felt very drained because I had an upset stomach in the morning," Murgunde said.
Murgunde, who is slated to play in the World championships next, admitted that she needs to add power to her game and work on her strength.
In the men's singles, Anand started confidently, leaving Kanetkar with no answers to his serves, but the latter proved he was no pushover.
Kanetkar rallied brilliantly inducing unforced errors from his opponent to narrow the margin, but Anand regained his poise and took the game 21-14.
In the second game, Anand opened up a 9-2 lead but Kanetkar fought back to close the gap. But the Pune boy then seemed to run out of steam as Anand took control and won the game 21-12.
"I was worried due to my hamstring strain. I thought team championships will be played first and I will get some rest but the individual competition were held first," Anand said after the match.
"I was having problem with my movement on the court. But my physiotherapy session today helped me.
"I thought it will be tougher today because Nikhil likes to play long matches but I did not give him much scope to play and controlled him from the start," he added.
