Badminton now medal-winning sport for India
Pusarla Venkata Sindhu has made the nation proud without any doubt though she has failed to win the gold medal in Rio Olympics on Friday. Sindhu, now the most popular ‘ammayi’ for the whole country, has driven the spirit down to each corner of the country which will indeed help in popularising the game much beyond the overwhelming weight of the most sought after cricket in India. At Rio, she has truly evolved her style and fought back to the two times badminton champion and world number one, Spaniard Carolina Marin, before settled for the silver medal. The Spaniard gave her little room for manoeuvre in the next two games, though Sindhu had competed extremely well in the first game with Carolina. After fighting a grueling and epic battle which lasted for an hour and 22 minutes against the world number one, she was invoking a slight hope of victory for a brief period. Her approach was simple which made her moves difficult, so she was mostly not in tune with the shuttle. This, as experts feel, had given immense opportunity to the experienced Carolina to pounce her in successive move once the game drew to the middle. However, playing the game at Rio was Sindhu’s big bonus, being the 10 seeded player of the game against the world number one. Her indomitable spirit and determination was truly reflected as the Indian champion struggled to fight for each point though remained upset for some time, but enjoyed the game all through.
At times, it was disheartening to see how Sindhu was constantly looking for a solution from her veteran coach Dronacharya Pullela Gopichand when her opponent was making swift successful moves. But, Sindhu, to be honest, has lifted the sagging spirits in the Indian camp and accepted her defeat with humility. On a personal note, it was a great victory for her and for the country as well, particularly in badminton, because she has registered her as the first Indian woman to clinch Olympic silver and second to win a medal after Saina Nehwal’s bronze in the london Olympics of 2012. Also she has become the fourth Indian to win a silver medal in Olympics after following the footsteps of Rajyavardhan Singh Ratore (Athens 2004), Sushil Kumar and Vijay Kumar (london 2012) who won silver in their respective games. Undeniably it is an amazing feat, but a country like India must train her sportspersons for the best of the performances in world class events like the Olympics where nations showcase their talents. We must show the world how our sportsmen can snatch gold medals from others. Hope we will be able to move beyond the Sakshi and Sindhu moments in the next Olympics for sure. We must thank the ever increasing role of the social media tools like Twitter, WhatsApp etc besides other media networks, in shaping opinions and spreading awareness which has widely contributed to make the larger than life profile of Sindhu, even more than her Rio journey for sure.