Indian women clinch crown

Men go down to Sri Lanka

Indian women outplayed Sri Lanka 3-0 in the team championship final of the fifth carrom World Cup on Sunday.

However, Indian men continued to find reigning World champion Sri Lanka a tough nut to crack and lost 2-1 in the final.

Rashmi Kumari, Kajal Kumari and S. Apoorva helped India beat Sri Lanka without dropping a game for the women’s title. Rayana Fathimath of Maldives had put up a better fight against Kajal in the semifinals, but could not stop India from recording a 3-0 victory in the semifinals.

In the men’s final, Zaheer Pasha gave a good start to India by beating Shaheed Hilmy, but Nishantha Fernando and Chamil Cooray defeated K. Sagayabharathi and Prashant More respectively.

The results: Men (final): Sri Lanka bt India 2-1 (Shaheed Hilmy lost to Zaheer Pasha 22-25, 11-25; Nishantha Fernando bt K. Sagayabharathi 25-22, 25-7; Chamil Cooray bt Prashant More 3-25, 25-15, 25-21).

Semifinals: India bt Malaysia 3-0 (Prashant More bt Munthasir 25-3, 25-9; Pasha bt Ismail Azmeen 25-6, 25-11; Sagayabharathi bt Ali Azim 25-18, 25-0).

Women (final): India bt Sri Lanka 3-0 (Rashmi Kumari bt Roshita Joseph 19-15, 25-23; Kajal Kumari bt Chalani Lakmali Liyanage 25-11, 25-12; S. Apoorva bt Yasika Rahubadda 25-12, 25-23).