Velavan Senthilkumar wins bronze at the Commonwealth Youth Games

Velavan Senthilkumar wins bronze

India’s promising Velavan Senthilkumar won a bronze medal in the men’s singles event in the squash competitions of the Commonwealth youth games being held in Samoa.

It did not matter that the Tamil Nadu boy Velavan got the medal on a platter after his losing semifinalist opponent Israr Ahamad of Pakistan reported sick and could not take the court. Earlier Velavan failed to spring any surprise against the top seed Ng Eain Yeow of Malaysia, who has a crisp game and gave little away. Vela matched him for a while in the first game. But better staying power saw the Malaysian cruise to a comfortable win. The scoreline was 11-7, 11-3, 11-7.

Israr had earlier conceded his semi-final match against England’s Patrick Rooney citing illness and could not recover for the bronze medal match.

Velavan will team up with Harshit Jawanda for the mixed doubles which gets underway on Wednesday.