We were at our lowest going into Asian Games: Chirag Shetty after winning gold medal

They created history by winning India's first-ever badminton gold medal at the Asian Games but star men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty on Saturday said they came into the continental showpiece low in confidence. Satwik and Chirag beat South Korea's Choi Solgyu and Kim Wonho 21-18 21-16 to win India's first medal in men's doubles in 41 years since Leroy D'sa and Pradeep Gandhe won a bronze in the 1982 edition.

"It has been a tough journey and coming into this tournament, we were not playing at our best. We lost in the World Championships quarterfinals and then in the first round lost in the China Open. Probably, we were at our lowest," Chirag said after the final match. "When we went back home, we trained even on Sundays. There was only one goal, to play to the best of our abilities and push as hard as possible and then God would decide what is in store for us in the Asian Games.

"Because of the hard work by both of us and the team, coaches and everybody have put in in these two weeks, we are here." Chirag said they got into their rhythm back after beating the Chinese pair of Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang in the men's team event final. India, however, lost the team event final 2-3 to settle for a silver.

"The final match of the team event when we beat the Chinese was the turning point. We thought we were playing close to our best in that game and that changed things," he said. Satwik said the duo did not sleep last night in the excitement of the final match. "Before coming into the match, we did not really think about all these, we just wanted to have fun," Satwik said when asked about the enormity of their win.

"We could not sleep last night because of the excitement, I was waking up till 5am. It was a good week for us, emotions came out and we did not plan anything. It came naturally." Coach Pullela Gopichand offered the perspective and termed the gold medal win a momentous occasion for Indian badminton and sports overall.

"It is a huge win. It is a momentous moment for Indian badminton and Indian sports," he said. "For me, the Asian Games is in some sense tougher than the Olympics as well. Satwik and Chirag are one of the favourites to win and I am really happy that they peaked at the right time and won this big, prestigious event," Gopichand said. "The team silver, Prannoy's phenomenal run for the bronze and this gold, I think this is exceptional."

Gopichand, however, clarified that he considered Asian Games bigger than the Olympics in terms of the number of rounds the players have to play and not on the basis of scale. "I said Asian Games are bigger than Olympics not from the perspective of scale because the Olympics will definitely be bigger than this (Asian Games).

"But here, Malaysia will have two teams, Korea will have two, Japan will have two, Indonesia will have two teams, so if you look at these, there are at least about nine countries which have two entries each," he said. "That is a tough draw to have whereas at the Olympics, you have only the top 13 competing. So you might not even have these many rounds. In that perspective I said the Asian Games is tougher than the Olympics."

Gopichand said Chirag and Shetty are the strongest players and hardest smashers in the world currently. "To my mind, I have been very clear to them that they are the strongest players in the world. In some combinations, one guy is playing well and the other guy is not. "But both were immaculate in their form, they hit really hard. They are the hardest hitters in the world," he said.

Asked how the players will go about as the Paris Olympics is coming less than a one year from now, Gopichand said, "Our qualification to Olympics is on the basis of world ranking at the end of April next year. "So, we have to continue playing. Many of our players are ready to travel to Finland, Denmark and France.

Some of these players who are in the top 10 have a mandatory clause to play in these tournaments," he said. "So, it is tough and they have to hold their rankings and seedings. The higher, the better they are." He also informed that Chirag and Satwik have also become world number one pair.