Following the historic gold medal win in Lawn Bowls event at the Commonwealth Games 2022, Rupa Rani Tirkey said that they had goosebumps when they took to the podium and the national anthem was played. The Indian Lawn Bowls team created history by winning its first-ever medal in the sport, capturing gold by defeating South Africa 17-10 in the final.
"I feel very proud. We had goosebumps (when we took to the podium and National Anthem was played). We had never thought of it but it became possible today," Rupa Rani Tirkey told ANI.
Nayanmoni Saikia the other member of the historic gold-winning team, said that throughout the game they did not lose hope and that the communication between the team help them to secure the points against South Africa.
"Our morale went a little down when they levelled 1-1. But we didn't lose hope. We talked to each other and understood that we can do it. We will secure one point at a time and cover it," Nayanmoni Saikia said.
Talking about the event, the action was back and forth between India and their opponents, who are among the best teams in the sport with 44 medals. India were represented by Rupa Rani Tirkey, Nayanmoni Saikia, Lovely Choubey and Pinki Singh in this historic match. India won the match by 17-10.
India started the match with a lead before South Africa fought back to make things 2-2. India kept dominating their opponents as after End 7, the score read 7-2 in their favour.
After end 8, South Africa did get two points on the table, but India got one more, which widened their lead to 8-4.
South Africa continued their fight back and made the scoreline read 8-6 after End 9, though India still had a two-point lead.
After End 10, the scores stood level at 8-8. India fumbled their lead after End 11 as South Africa was leading them by two points at 8-10.
Things started to turn in favour of India once again after End 13, as they scored two more points to gain a 12-10 lead once again. They continued to build on their renewed momentum and extended their lead to 15-10. India never looked back from there and ended the match with Gold in their hands, while South Africa had to settle for silver.
Earlier, in the day, the Indian Women's Triples team consisting of Tania Choudhary, Pinki and Rupa Rani Trikey defeated New Zealand in their round one match by 15-11 after 18 ends.
But in the women's pairs category, Team India consisting of Lovely Choubey, Nayanoni Saikia was defeated by New Zealand by a margin of 9-18.
Earlier on Sunday, India's Lawn Bowls men's pairs team of Dinesh Kumar and Sunil Bahadur progressed to the quarterfinals of their event after a win over England in their Section C match.
Tania Choudhary on the other hand broke her losing streak in Lawn Bowls by defeating Shauna O'Neill of Northern Ireland by 21-12 after 19 ends. Despite winning the match, she failed to qualify for the quarter-finals as she had registered three straight losses against Dee Hoggan (Scotland), Arthur Almond (Falkland Islands) and Laura Daniels (Wales) previously.