Spain’s Carolina Marin screeched her way to Olympic gold Friday, defeating India’s PV Sindhu in three games to become the first non-Asian victor of the women’s singles Badminton title. She added that she is really happy and that it has been a wonderful week for her even though she got a silver.
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Sindhu, who was trailing 16-19 at one point, fought her heart out and took five points on the trot to claim the first game in 27 minutes.
Spain’s Marin made it to the final without meeting any in-form players and the last hurdle would be her toughest match. This obviously shows how much the world’s number 10 player respects her game and her opponents as well.
According to The Times of India, Sindhu also said that winning a medal in Olympics was her aim and as that has been achieved, her life will have new meanings. I think we have given it all we had.
Other top searched Indian athletes in the last three days were Kidambi Srikanth (badminton), Dipa Karmakar (gymnastics) who secured fourth position, Sania Mirza (tennis), Saina Nehwal (badminton), Vinesh Phogat (wrestling), Lalita Babar (long distance running), Vikas Krishan Yadav (boxing) and Narsingh Pancham Yadav (wrestling).
Marin had to be told off by the umpire on several occasions during the match because of the level of her screeching while the two also engaged in in several discussions about changing shuttles. “But having said that, hats off to Sindhu for the kind of effort she’s put in”, he said.
Throughout the game, Sindhu was seen calm and composed unlike her Spanish counterpart Marin who was visibly shaken with the huge ground support for the Indian. Known as the “Girl Nadal”, she lived up to the billing in the game showing a remarkable ability to cover the court.
Announcing cash rewards for Sindhu and Sakshi, CMO Madhya Pradesh tweeted, “CM @ChouhanShivraj has announced a reward of Rs. 50 lakh to @Pvsindhu1 for clinching a Silver medal. I want to thank my partner”. Sometimes, Gopi was not able to come to the court due to cold or cough, but his ambition was only one thing that we have to win and get a medal.
Like Zhang Ning had done eight years earlier in Beijing, Spain’s Carolina Marin headed into the Olympic fortnight without a Superseries title in the same year and came home with gold.
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Rio de Janeiro, Aug 20: When it boils down to matters of discipline, Pullela Gopichand has no peers with PV Sindhu learning it the hard way since her formative years at the legendary coach’s academy. Despite a brief revival to 6-13 after the break, the Indian remained at the receiving end of most rallies, and eventually let the game go, to conserve her energies. World No. 1 Marin too adopted a similar ploy in the final: searing pace like Yihan’s, bodyline attack and deceptive net play which had to be neutralised.
