The 21-year-old Indian crumbled under the relentless pressure created by Marin to lose 21-19, 12-21, 15-21 in a pulsating final that lasted for an hour and 23 minutes at the Rio Centre here. There was a whisker of a chance, but nevertheless, you got the entire country glued onto their television sets. “But having said that, hats off to Sindhu for the kind of effort she’s put in”, he said.
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Sindhu had a 1-3 head-to-head record against Okuhara but all that went for a toss as the Indian came out with a well-thought strategy as she engaged the Japanese in long-rallies with her angled returns and deft drops.
“Overall, it’s not that I didn’t play well or get points”. After the second game, we both were 10-all in the third.
She also pressed the bounds of sportsmanship, stalling a number of times in the deciding game to argue with the chair umpire, which elicited indignant jeers from the huge contingent of Indian spectators.
Letting out a blood-curdling shriek with every winning point, the Spaniard was jeered by spectators at the Riocentro in a nerve-shredding deciding game as she pushed the bounds of good sportsmanship with constant stalling tactics.
In fact, it was a fortuitous turn that saw Sindhu, trailing 16-19, jumping into the lead to clinch the first game and the initiative.
Even then, at 16-14, it was anybody’s game.
Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara won the Rio bronze in a walkover after her Chinese opponent, the 2012 singles champion Li Xuerui, pulled out of their playoff with a serious knee injury.
Minister for Information Technology K.T. Rama Rao took to Twitter to congratulate Sindhu.
In his congratulatory message, PM Modi said: “Congrats for the Silver @Pvsindhu1”. It was her day on centre court today. I did not have my phone to reply to the best wishes but things like the Prime Minister’s tweet motivates us to push harder.
While after the victory of Sindhu, the Telangana government enthusiastically hinted a cash reward of Rs 1 crore to the Silver medallist while 50 lakh to her coach Pullela Gopichand.
Apart from Sindhu, the other Indians in action – wrestler Sandeep Tomar and Racewalker Sandeep Kumar – had a disappointing outing in their respective disciplines.
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In the women’s 20km Race Walk event, Khushbir Kaur finished 54th, while Sapna failed to finish the race. She played fantastic, much above her stature as a top-10 player for the precious Olympic medal, beating some of the best along the way.
