On Sunday, P V Sindhu became the first Indian to win badminton World Championships gold by beating familiar rival Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in a lop-sided final Basel. She won 21-7 21-7 in the summit clash that lasted just 38 minutes.
Two years after being robbed of the gold by Okuhara in an epic 110-minute final at Glasgow that went down as one of the greatest battles in badminton history, Sindhu finally exorcised the ghost of that heart-wrenching loss with a completely dominating win over the same opponent.
It was Sindhu’s fifth World Championships medal — joint-most for a woman singles player with former Olympics and world champion Zhang Ning of China — to go with the two successive silvers and a couple of bronze medals. Sindhu has also won an Olympic silver in 2016 Rio Games, a silver at Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, an Asian Games silver at Jakarta and the BWF World Tour Finals last year.
Badminton Association of India announces cash reward for PV Sindhu
The Badminton Association of India has announced a cash reward of Rs 20 lakh for PV Sindhu following her historic win at the World Championships. Congratulating Sindhu on her momentous achievement, BAI President Himanta Biswa Sarma said: “It has been a great week of top-class badminton, with an incredible performance by PV Sindhu as she becomes the first Indian to have the honour of becoming a World Champion”.
