Ouseph medal hopes ended in Glasgow

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Rajiv Ouseph missed out on a medal at the Commonwealth Games after losing two dramatic three-game thrillers on Saturday.

The Hounslow star saw his dreams of gold snatched away in the morning as he was edged out in an enthralling semi-final by Parupalli Kashyap, 21-18, 17-21, 18-21

And although he led R.M.V. Gurusaidutt 8-4 in the final game of the bronze medal match on Saturday evening, the exhaustion of playing his 13th match in 10 days seemed to take its toll as he went down 15-21, 21-14, 19-21.

World number 27 Ouseph had reached the final in Delhi four years ago, beating Kashyap in his own back yard in the semis on that occasion.

But history was reversed in Glasgow as second seed Kashyap, ranked five places above Ouseph, produced some terrific shots in a tense deciding game to keep alive his bid for gold.

The west Londoner had taken the first game and led in the early stages of the third but Kashyap responded by winning nine of 10 points to lead 19-11.

At 20-14, Ouseph saved four match points, including an astonishing 71-shot rally in which his Indian opponent produced some breathtaking defence, but he was undone on the fifth.

The 27-year-old could probably have done without another lengthy, emotionally draining encounter, but needed to dig deep after dropping the first game of the bronze medal match.

Ouseph showed great fight to take the match into a decider and put himself in a great position to win bronze at 8-4 up.

However, just as in the semi-final, he allowed Gurusaidutt back in with some tired shots, falling 8-10 and then 13-18 behind.

Again, Ouseph rallied to reduce the arrears to 18-19, but he was unable to complete the comeback and had to settle for fourth.

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