Goa clinch table tennis golds at Lusofonia Games 2014

Panaji, Jan 20 (IANS) The Goa (India) women and men’s table tennis team Monday beat the Portuguese team to win the first two gold medals of the 3rd Lusofonia Games, currently underway here.

The Goa women’s team, comprising Patkar Madhurika, Ankita Das and Shamini Kumaresan beat their Portuguese counterparts Joana Fins, Raquel Andrade and Joana Mota 3-0 to clinch the gold.

In the men’s table tennis final, Goa won a gold with 3-1. While Harmeet Desai, Amalrah Paul and Soumy Ghosh beat Andre Silva, Jorge Costa and Silva again in a reverse fixture, Portugal notched one victory when Diogo Silva beat Soumyajit Ghosh.

The Lusofonia Games are a Portuguese equivalent of the British Commonwealth Games. The team from Goa, a former Portuguese colony, also comprises of athletes from the rest of India.

The 12-day sporting event will features Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea- Bissau, Goa (India), Macau (China), Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe and Sri Lanka, whose athletes will compete in nine sporting disciplines like athletics, basketball, beach volleyball, football, judo, table tennis, taekwondo, volleyball and wushu.

The Lusofonia Games 2014 are the third edition of the Portuguese Commonwealth Games. The first two were held in Macau in 2006 and in Lisbon in 2009.