Doubles Day FIVE : Aussies claim Mixed Gold

Mixed Medals : Gold for Australia

The Mixed Doubles Bronze medal match featured the top two seeds, who had both suffered narrow losses yesterday. Kiwis Joelle King & Paul Coll picked themselves up the better as they took early leads in both games against England’s Waters & Selby, and continued to hold sway as they took the Bronze 11-6, 11-6.

“It’s a really good feeling,” said Coll. “Yesterday was a tough loss, so glad we were able to come out and perform today.”

King added : “It’s been a long two weeks! and we’ve played every single day – it’s a long stretch.  But I’m super proud of our effort today.”

Australia picked up its first Gold medal as Cameron Pilley & Donna Urquhart came from behind in both games to deny Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Saurav Ghosal.

The Indians led all the way to 8-7 in the first, and to 7-6 in the second when a trio of refereeing decisions went against them.

The Aussies took full advantage, moving to 10-9 match ball and then taking the title on a stroke on the sudden death point.

“Unbelievable!” said Pilley, who has now won three Doubles Gold medals. “We just had to soak up the atmosphere and ride the crowd home!”

“Every other gold I’ve won is so special.  But to play in front of such a great Aussie crowd is something we never get the opportunity to do.  I’ve got about ten family from Denmark who’ve come over and we’ve both got a massive group from Yamba that came up.

“We knew it would be a great battle,” added Urquhart. “The support was just amazing, can’t believe it! It’s my first gold medal. I always imagined what it would be like getting gold. so it’s going to be difficult now to realise it’s actually happened!”

Men’s & Women’s Finalists Decided

It was an afternoon of contrasting matches on Day Five of the #GC2018Squash Doubles, with three quick wins and one marathon.

The day opened with an all-English men’s clash, and it was Daryl Selby & Adrian Waller who prevailed over compatriots James Willstrop & Declan James as they came from 7-9 down to take the first game, then in the decider saved two match balls before finally taking the win on a ‘no let’ to the opposition in sudden-death after 87 minutes.

David Palmer and Zac Alexander delighted the packed Aussie crowd as they edged a close first game against second seeded Scots Alan Clyne & Greg Lobban, then played brilliantly from 0-3 down in the second, claiming their place in the final in just over 30 minutes.

The women’s semis followed similar patterns as the higher-seeded pairs took close first games then powered through the second.

Defending champions Joshna Chinappa & Dipika Pallikal Karthik showed all their skills against England’s Massaro & Perry,

World Champion Kiwis Joelle King & Amanda Landers-Murphy continue to put their early loss behind them as they beat Aussie rivals Grinham & Urquhart.