Kiwis take squash gold in mixed doubles
04 August 2002
Kiwi's Leilani Rorani and Glen Wilson beat Malaysia in the mixed doubles squash final.
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Leilani Rorani performing earlier in the tournament
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The New Zealanders beat Malaysia’s Nicol David and Ong Beng Hee in a one-sided final this morning. Wilson smashed a forehand out of David’s reach to open the scoring and the New Zealanders extended their advantage to 3-0 in the first game. Rorani was in devastating form as the score rose rapidly to 11-4, but there was a short delay for a split ball and the Malaysians went on the offensive. They climbed back to 14-9 and saved three game balls before losing the opener 15-11. The second game was nip and tuck from the outset as David, who won the Finnish Open at the tender age of 17, and her Chingford-based team-mate upped their work rate. The game was finely balanced at 3-3, but former world number 1 Rorani, returning from a five-month injury lay-off for a damaged Achilles tendon, and her London-based Maori club coach opened out a rapid-fire seven-point advantage to take the score to 10-3. The Malaysian number 2 seeds were visibly jaded. They had only reached the final at 23:35 on 3 August by beating the English top seeds Chris Walker and Fiona Geaves in a marathon 15-14, 12-15, 15-14 match, which lasted 84 minutes. Hamilton-based Rorani kept up the relentless pressure on her Penang-based opponents and the Kiwis moved to within sight of victory at 13-7. At 14-9, Rorani returned a cross-court pass to David, but her return could only find the tin and the Kiwis had struck gold. On winning the gold medal Rorani said: “We joked about it and said, ‘wouldn’t it be cool to win a gold medal together?’ And today’s the day. It’s so awesome.” And on coming back after serious injury: “A couple of months ago I was talking to Neville and telling him that I didn’t think I was any good coming over here for the Commonwealth Games. It was hard when I got back into playing because I kept making a lot of errors. It’s hard when you are playing in a doubles combination and you feel like you’re letting down your partner. I really didn’t want to come over, but the team was just awesome.” Ong and David earned the silver medal for Malaysia. Info News Service/ndp/pjt
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