“I ended up with silver medal but I am really happy”, said Sindhu, moments after losing her final clash against the two-time World Champion Marin. Sindhu looked a bit slow in her court movements.
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Mother Vijaya was understandably disappointed, but conceded that she knew it was not going to be easy for her daughter in the final. I didn’t get really annoyed. “It’s all part of the game”, Carolina Marin said after the finals.
The Sindhu s hard fought silver was India s second medal of the Rio Olympics after female wrestler Sakshi Malik claimed bronze on Wednesday. The Badminton world number one lost the first game 21-15 but took the second 21-11 before sensationally keeping his gold medal dreams alive with a 22-20 victory in the third. Sindhu, after waving to the crowd for their huge support, went and lifted the Spaniard onto her feet and embraced for her victory. When I came to final, I told myself just one match to go and you could win a gold medal. “I have the best team behind me, they helped me a lot and were awesome”, Marin said after the match.
The Spaniard became the first non-Asian victor of the women’s singles badminton title.
Telangana government will give a cash prize of Rs 1 crore to India’s star shuttler P.V. Sindhu for winning the silver medal at the Rio Olympics.
But Sindhu, who was on a giant-killing spree after dismissing two higher-ranked opponents in competition, displayed grit to pull level at 10-10.
Sindhu and Malik are India’s only two medallists at Rio so far, with none of its male athletes yet to step on the podium, a disappointing return for the country of nearly 1.3 billion people.
The 21 year old played down the effects of her opponents on court vocal exercises.
In their last five meetings in the last two years, Marin has beaten Sindhu four times with the Indian gaining an upper hand during the Denmark Super Series last year, but today she could not repeat the feat.
Sindhu also praised Marin on her Olympic gold.
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It is a good day for India as the whole nation is celebrating the very prestigious Olympics silver medal, won by Pusarla Venkata Sindhu today. It was gutsy, it was tenacious and, most importantly of all, the display came on her sport’s most spectacular stage.
