Busan: Ace paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal led from the front as India defeated Iran 3-1 to finish seventh in the team event of the Asian Championships here on Wednesday.
In the 7th-8th position playoff, Sharath Kamal (68) pipped 44th-ranked Iranian Noshad Alamiyan in a keenly contested match to help India finish seventh in the Champion Division.
Sharath Kamal won the first two games with relative ease 11-5, 11-9, but the Iranian came back strongly in the next two to level the tie. In the decider, however, the Indian held on to his nerves to claim the match. He won the encounter 11-5, 11-9, 7-11, 2-11, 11-7.
Earlier, the 30-year-old got India off to a perfect start as he brushed aside Nima Alamian's (282) challenge 8-11, 12-10, 11-9, 11-9 in the first encounter at the Gijang Gymnasium here.
But Soumyajit Ghosh (170) failed to overcome the defenses of Alamiyan and went down 7-11, 6-11, 9-11.
Anthony Amalraj (158) made heavy weather of his match against Mohammadreza Akhlaghpasand (301) but managed to have the last laugh in a five-game encounter as he won 9-11, 11-7, 11-7, 10-12, 11-5.
"Sharath played really well. His fore hand topspin was working well for him. He varied his speed well. His back block also work for him. Amalraj too was good," coach Bhawani Mukherjee said.
"We did our best. All the top teams from Asia are playing. Our target for men and women was to play in champion division and we did that. With this performance, we are now eligible for Asian Games as per government guidelines," he added.
Meanwhile in the mixed doubles, the pair of Ghosh and Mouma Das, who had beaten Mongolian pair of Lkhagvasuren Enkhbat and Byamba Erdenesuvd 3-0, lost in the pre-quarters to Gao Ning and Yu Mengyu of Singapore 10-12, 2-11, 7-11.
The other Indian pair of Sharath Kamal and Neha Aggarwal too lost in the second round to Chih-Yuan Chuang and Yi-Hua Huang of Chinese Taipei 7-11, 8-11, 10-12.
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