“I am so happy”, said the businessman who does not claim to be a sportsman, but admits he used to play badminton in his school days.
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However, in the second game the Spain girl took control from the starting point and she did not allow Sindhu to catch or overtake her. Carolina earned a facile 21-12 victory in the second game.
She was criticised for belittling Sindhu’s achievement and betraying a defeatist mentality about Sindhu’s chances against Marin in the final.
Every Indian is proud of PV Sindhu’s wonderful feat at the Rio Olympic Games. When it came to the final I thought ‘I just have one match to go. Losing one or two points here and there means winning and losing.
The president of the Hyderabad District Badminton Association V Chamundeshwarnath said he would raise funds to gift her a BMW auto, a prize fellow shuttler Saina Nehwal had also received for her bronze medal at the 2012 London Games. The kind of sacrifices she has made without complaining is fantastic.
Earlier in the day Ramana had told PTI that his daughter had 50-50 chances to clinch the gold medal in the summit clash. You should give your best shot. I really worked hard.
The Spaniard hit back in the second game with her superb shot-making skills. The way she proved on the court was excellent.
“It’s a one in a lifetime or one in a million times or, for us, one in a billion times that somebody gets an opportunity to stand on that (medal) podium and for someone like me it was a part of the journey as well”, Gopichand told reporters.
In fact Sindhu was lost in the crowd as India sent a record 120-odd athletes to Rio with high expectations of topping their haul of six medals at the 2012 London Games.
Meanwhile coach Pullela Gopichand was all praise for the efforts that his pupil had put in. However, I was prepared because I knew it would happen.
With a new found confidence and ranking, which is set to improve, Sindhu’s next target is to win a Super Series.
The entire nation was glued to their screens watching the youngster battle it out for gold and even though she missed out, the badminton star got a lot of support through various social media channels.
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42-year-old Gopichand always had dreams of producing Olympic medallists.
