The Wonder Girl of Indian Badminton, current World No. 7 in BWF Women’s Singles rankings, PV Sindhu is not unknown to badminton lovers. And if you’re an Indian, she’s among the very few to have won not only the Olympic Medals, but is the highest podium finish for an Indian Female at the Olympics. Amazing she is, here we talk about some feats of PV Sindhu.
Olympic Silver in Badminton
The 1995 born PV Sindhu is the first Badminton player from India to win an Olympic Silver. This record has a few many sub-records. Like she’s the first Indian Badminton player to play an Olympic Singles final, first Indian Badminton player to play an Olympic Badminton tournament final, first Indian Female player to play an Olympic final, first Indian female player to win Olympics silver medal. Aren’t these some of the most profound feats of PV Sindhu?
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In the Rio de Janeiro Olympics 2016, Pusarla Venkata Sindhu defeated Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 21-19, 21-10 in straight sets to enter the Olympic Badminton tournament final. In the finals, she couldn’t keep the early lead she got as a first set win and lost to Carolina Marin of Spain 21-19, 12-21 & 15-21 in a match that went to three sets.
Khel Ratna Recipient
Based on her earlier achievements and the Rio 2016 Summer Games Silver medal, she was honored with the highest sports awards of the country, the prestigious Khel Ratna award in 2016 on the National Sports Day.
First Indian Badminton World Champion
In 2019, PV Sindhu entered the final of a BWF World Championships for the third time in three consecutive years, first Indian to reach finals more than once. The World Championships that was held at Basel in 2019 gave yet another feather to the feats of PV Sindhu as she defeated Nozomi Okuhara 21-7, 21-7 in straight set to register as the first ever Badminton World Champion from India.
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By this, she avenged the narrow miss she had at the hand of same opponent in 2017 BWF World Championships final at the Emirates Arena, Glasgow.
5 World Championship Medals
In the 2019 edition of BWF World Championships, PV Sindhu became the second female after Zhang Ning to win 5 World Championships Medal. The twice Olympic Champion Zhang Ning has exactly the same denomination of Olympic medals as Sindhu as so far viz 1 gold, 2 silver & 2 bronze. Isn’t this among the most amazing feats of PV Sindhu?
Her World Championships medals were 2013 & 2014 World Championships Bronze medals (Guangzhou & Copenhagen), 2017 & 2018 World Championships Silver medals (Glasgow & Nanjing) and 2019 World Championships gold medal at Basel.
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Other Feats of PV Sindhu
In addition to these wins, PV Sindhu has won or stayed runner up at several other tournaments like:
- BWF World Tour finals title in 2018
- Indonesia Open runner up in 2019 (BWF World Tour)
- India Open & Thailand Open in 2018 (BWF World Tour)
- Twice Commonwealth Games Medalist (Silver & Bronze respectively at Gold Coast 2018 & Glasgow 2014)
- Asian Games Silver medalist in 2018
- BWF Superseries Title win at Korea Open 2017, India Open 2017, China Open 2016.
- BWF Superseries runner up at BWF Super Series Finals 2017, Hong Kong Open 2017, Hong Kong Open 2016 & Denmark Open 2015.
- Sports Honor Arjuna Award in 2013
- Fourth Highest Civilian Award Padma Shri in 2015
- Third Highest Civilian Award Padma Bhushan in 2020
- BBC Indian Sportswoman of Year in 2020.
- In the list of Highest-Paid Female Athletes in 2018, Forbes
- Career High BWF ranking of no. 2 (Women’s Singles) in 2017.
- Second Highest ranked Indian Player behind Saina Nehwal & Srikanth Kidambi.
These were some of the feats of PV Sindhu, hope you like it. Don’t forget to put in your comments.
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