Asian Games 2023: From fever to fever pitch!

India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (left) and Chirag Shetty display their gold medals on the podium at Hangzhou, China, on Saturday. Pic/AFP

They came, they saw, they conquered and then danced. This was pretty much the story of Indian badminton's biggest Asian Games medal here on Saturday as Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty beat Korea's Choi Solgyu and Kim Wonho 21-18, 21-16 to win the men's doubles gold at the Binjiang Gymnasium.

Moments after the shuttle flew over and out off Wonho's racquet, Rankireddy fell to the ground in celebration after the superfast 57-minute encounter. Shetty meanwhile, in what has now become a trademark celebration, took off his shirt and threw it into the crowd. The Indian duo even threw their expensive racquets into the stands to provide precious souvenirs for members of the eager crowd that had been supporting them throughout. Then came the on-court dance. Rankireddy first started grooving to the title track of the Bollywood hit Dangal that was playing over the venue's loudspeakers, and Shetty promptly joined him with the crowd swaying to their moves.

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Earlier, the Koreans were dancing to the Indian shuttlers' tunes as Rankireddy smartly kept pushing them back and wide while Shetty killed the shuttle in the centre.

High energy levels

Looking at their energy levels, it's almost unimaginable that this Indian pair nearly awarded a walkover in their first round here. "There is a lot behind the scenes that you don't know. Chirag got the flu on the first day. He was sick the whole day and rested. The next day, we were to play the Indonesians and I thought it'll be a walkover because he didn't sleep the whole night. He's still not at all that fit, but he didn't show it to me and pushed himself," said Rankireddy.

"Not just me, half our team were down with the flu. Due to the flu, I suffered severe back pain and headache and went to the public clinic here to get medication. Luckily, we got a day off after that first round win and then the fever and the body pain subsided," said Shetty.

Not all that rosy

Interestingly, the silver medal-winning men's shuttlers had initially made a pact among themselves that someone from their squad would ensure that the national anthem is played on the last day of the competition. They expected HS Prannoy to compete in the gold medal match, but a back injury laid him low and he finished with a bronze a day earlier, leaving Satwik-Chirag to get the job done. That the World No. 1 ranking has accompanied this stupendous feat is a deserving bonus.

The anticipation of this massive gold, however, was not lost on the duo as they couldn't sleep the previous night. "I was so excited about this final that I couldn't sleep. I closed my eyes, but was wide awake and kept turning in my bed. Then, I looked at my clock and it was 3am. This continued and eventually, my alarm went off at 9:15am and I was anyway awake," said Shetty.

Losing sleep, match pangs

"Before the start of the match, Chirag actually asked me ‘kitne baje soya [what time did you sleep]'. I told him I didn't and that I could see the light and hear the noise from his bathroom too which meant he also didn't [sleep]," said Rankireddy.

Head coach Pullela Gopichand put this achievement in perspective. "This medal is massive. For me, the Asian Games are tougher than the Olympics. Malaysia, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, in all there were nine nations that sent two teams here, whereas at the Olympics, you have only the top 13," he said before going on to use adjectives galore to describe the World's best doubles pair. "These two are the fastest pair in the world.

In any pairing, you have one partner who smashes and the other who plays around, but here, both Chirag and Satwik can smash really hard. They will undoubtedly go on to achieve a lot more," he concluded.