PAUL DRINKHALL hailed a “fantastic achievement” after he won the second Commonwealth Games gold medal of his career – but also rued the costly lapse that deprived him of a chance to go for a singles medal.

Drinkhall and partner Liam Pitchford clinched the men’s doubles gold in a thriller as the English pair beat India’s Sharath Achanta and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran in five tense games on Australia’s Gold Coast.

It was a sixth Commonwealth medal and a second gold for the Loftus Olympian, who won the mixed doubles title alongside wife Jo in Glasgow four years ago.

Drinkhall was delighted to win gold after England had to settle for bronze in the team event, and said: “It’s a fantastic achievement. From a very young age you watch a big event like this.

“We were planning on coming here and winning a lot of medals, so to get the gold round our neck is great. We would have wanted it earlier, but that happens and it’s great to get ours.”

Drinkhall, who is currently number 52 in the world rankings, did not feature in the mixed doubles, and suffered a surprise defeat in the singles as he went down 4-2 to Canada’s world number 216 Eugene Wang.

He said: “In the singles, it wasn’t the result I wanted so that was very disappointing. We went on to the doubles quite shortly after and from that moment I just tried to stay focused and get the gold and that’s happened now, so I can be very happy with that and put the singles to the back of my mind for a little bit longer.

“Overall it was a good tournament. I think I performed really well throughout, although I had a little bit of a lapse in my singles match. That obviously cost me my singles tournament, so it was a little bit too much of a lapse. But those things happen in sport and I’ve got to work on that and try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”