by Simon Daish

Facing title rivals Cote d’Ivoire ‘A’ in the final round of play the Indian and host nation pairing of Selena Selvakumar and Grace Orphee Gbey were pushed hard, but successfully came away with a 3-1 win.

Cote d’Ivoire ‘A’ struck first through Christine Kamenan, who saw off Grace Orphee Gbey in straight games (11-5, 11-6, 11-4) but the mixed nationality team responded quickly with Selena Selvakumar proving too strong for Rebecca Houngue (11-6, 11-7, 11-9). Grace Orphee Gbey then earned a valuable seven games victory in her rematch against Christine Kamenan (11-7, 9-11, 13-11, 4-11, 11-7) with Selena Selvakumar also triumphing over the Cote d’Ivoire ‘A’ player (11-2, 11-4, 11-4).

In the battle for third position it was success for Cote d’Ivoire ‘B’ following a 3-1 win against Cote d’Ivoire ‘C’.

The Cadet Girls’ Team gold medal went to China after the team of Lin Lequan and Hu Yininghua picked up a convincing result against Cote d’Ivoire ‘A’ in the third round of fixtures.

Lin Lequan and Hu Yininghua both emerged victorious in their respective singles encounters with Ayara Grace Azia (11-1, 11-3, 11-1) and Sema Lago (11-3, 11-3, 11-1), prior to a doubles win over the host nation pairing (11-2, 11-1, 11-1) to finish at the summit of the group.