NEW DELHI, Oct 14 Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei won the men's singles gold in badminton at the Commonwealth Games, defeating England's Rajiv Ousep 21-10, 21-8 on Thursday to defend the title he won at the last games in Melbourne.

A hard-fought women's singles final ended with India's Saina Nehwal, ranked No 3 in the world, beating Malaysia's Wong Mew Chew 19-21, 23-21, 21-13.

The women's doubles final was marred by controversy as India's Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Machimanda beat Sari Shinta Mulia and Yao Lei of Singapore 21-16, 21-19. Yao responded to the loss by smashing her racket on the ground and kicking the mangled remains out of the court.

Ouseph, ranked 16th in the world, was no match for Lee, who wrapped up the match in less than a half hour. He is the first player in the history of the Commonwealth Games to win back-to-back men's singles titles.

England and India were about level going into the last day in terms of gold medals. India's aim for New Delhi was to finish second in the standings, replacing the English.In the women's singles, despite thunderous cheers, Nehwal took the lead only once in the first game at 3-2 and ended up trailing throughout the game.

In the second game too, she took the lead only at 6-5 but had to fight hard for every point. With both players visibly tiring by the third game, Nehwal drew on her reserves to take the lead at 3-2 and extended it to 12-7 before Wong came back to win three points. A series of errors by Wong left a fist-pumping Nehwal, who constantly eyeballed her opponent, nearly home at 20-12. A lobbed return wide sealed the victory for Nehwal.

Malaysia won the mixed doubles gold with Koo Kien Keat and Chin Ee Hui defeating Nathan Robertson and Jenny Wallwork of England 22-20, 21-12, much to the delight of the Indian crowd.

England lost another chance to win a gold when the Malaysian men's doubles pair of Koo and Tan Boon Heong defeated Andrew Clark and Robertson 21-19, 21-14.

The victory gave Malaysia a record 11 golds, beating their previous best games performance of 10 golds when they hosted the 1998 edition at Kuala Lumpur.—AP