PV Sindhu from Hyderabad has won Silver medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics in women’s singles badminton match at the Riocentro.
Sindhu lost to Spain’s Carolina Marin, ranked No 1, 21-19, 12-21, 15-21.
Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara won the bronze in a walkover after her Chinese opponent, the 2012 singles champion Li Xuerui, pulled out of their playoff with a knee injury.
PV Sindhu had defeated a total of five athletes to reach the finals. From the beginning of her Rio campaign, PV Sindhu has exhibited a dominating performance.
The greatest challenge to PV Sindhu came in the finals when she took on Spain’s legendary shuttler Carolina Marin. The Spaniard player is often referred to ‘Girl Nadal’, a reference to tennis icon from Spain, Rafael Nadal. This was the second encounter between Marin and Sindhu. At the Hong Kong Open in 2015, Marin had defeated Sindhu.
PV Sindhu became the first Indian woman to win a silver medal at the quadrennial event. This is also India’s first silver in Badminton at the Olympics. Saina Nehwal had won bronze in badminton at London Olympics.
She also became only the fourth woman from India to win an Olympic medal. MC Mary Kom (boxing), Karnam Malleswari (weightlifting) and Saina (badminton) are the other three who have made the country proud.
It is India’s second medal in the Games after wrestler Sakshi Malik bagged bronze in the women’s 58 kilogram category.
