25-01-2014 … The Sri Lankan Men’s team consisting of Wasantha Rathnapala and Mahesh Perera continued their winning streak as they defeated Angola in straight sets. The experienced Lankans took on the Angolan counterparts in the first match of the day on Court 1 as the men from East Timor were struggling to keep up to the highly skilled Portuguese team on Court 2. While the Lankans had it fairly easy demolishing Angola with 21-16 and 21-14, Portugal had to up the ante and put in a little extra effort to defeat East Timor by 21-15 and 21-19.
Post the first two matches, the audience was waiting eagerly for the home team to step on the competition court to take on team Angola; oblivious to the bad news that was yet to unfold. The match had to be forfeited, following a serious knee injury to Indian athlete, Kamalan Joseph. Team Goa (India) 2, who was yet to face Guinea Bissau later, started warming up rightaway, knowing that the Indian hopes now lay on their shoulders.
Following the cancellation of match between Goa (India) 2 and Angola 1, the match between Macau (China) and Sao Tome & Principe was then shifted to Court 1, instead of Court 2.Sao Tome & Principe started on an aggressive note winning the first set by 21-7. Team Macau (China) bounced back with vengeance and crushed their opponents by 21-12 to win the second set. However, the Macau athletes were left gasping for breath as a close encounter in the third set forced them to bow down to Sao Tome & Principe as the latter team won the deciding set by 15-13.
The perfectly tuned team of Pralhad Dhawasker and Anil Shirodkar were welcomed with a loud cheer from the spectator stands as they were ready to take on team Guinea Bissau on Court 1. Right from the beginning, the relatively inexperienced team from Guinea Bissau took some hammering from the experience Goan duo. After toying around with their opponents for around 30 mins, team Goa (India) put the final nail in the coffin and won the match by 5-21 and 6-21.
While Indian men roared on Court 1, Indian women were seen struggling to match their Portuguese counterparts. Joana Vasconcelos and Raquel Lacerda of Portugal took advantage of the relatively lesser experienced Indian team consisting of Maheswari Jayaraman and Veera Venkata Sanhti Devi Karri and defeated them comfortably in straight sets – 21-9, 21-12. The morning session ended with five matches being played.
