It is said
that history repeats itself, and to some extent there is some truth in this
statement. Similar happened today, that is on 25th August 2019. Two
years ago in 2017, Nozomi Okuhara, a Japanese badminton player, sealed her
position and emerged as winner after an epic battle with P.V. Sindhu which is
considered as one of the greatest contests in badminton history. Sindhu lost in
the final 19-20 22-20 22-20. But she was determined to get the gold and win
this year. Her determination, hard work, and focus are commendable.
Our gem,
P.V. Sindhu carved her name on the pages of history with gold by emerging as
winner of the World Champions 2019. She has now become the first ever Indian to
win the prestigious BWF World Champions. Nozomi Okuhara, was her opponent in
the finals. BWF World Championships is a badminton tournament which was held
from 19 to 25 August at St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland.
P.V. Sindhu had claimed successive silver in the last two editions of the prestigious tournament beside two bronze. But her eyes constantly were drooling for the gold. She was just one win away from it. In the semifinals, she defeated World No. 3 and All England Champion Chen Yu Fei of China with the score of 21-7 21-14 in a 40 minute semifinal. Sindhu clearly said after the semifinals that she is happy but not satisfied yet, and there is one more match and would want gold. Thus the semifinal was just a cakewalk for her but the challenge that waited ahead of Sindhu was the finals. She saw history repeating itself in front of her eyes, Okhuhara was her opponent again but this time Sindhu had a quest for gold, she framed the history according to her and thus she emerged as the winner. 2019 is not 2017! Sindhu was able to take her revenge along with the title of a world champion.
P.V. Sindhu
defeated Nozomi Okhuhara with 21-7, 21-7, in the Basel final and it was over in
just 38 minutes! It was completely a one-sided challenge and even the
commentator Gillian Clarke remarked the same, “I can’t remember such a one
sided final.” Sindhu used all four corners of the court which later laid
pressure on Okhuhara.
HIGHLIGHTS
- So, the finals started and Sindhu took the court against Okhuhara in World Championships final and match was supposed to start after the few minutes of warm up.
- As the match started, Sindhu could have lost the hope as she lost her first point to Okuhara after a long rally but she rose up and answered Okuhara with style- by taking away the next two points which suddenly in just few minutes became 8-1.
- There was a mid-game break and again came a point, which turned the score as 9-1. The kind of revenge that Sindhu took of her 2017 defeat is a lesson for everyone, a sweet revenge. The score highlighted was 15-1
- But Okuhara somewhat managed to steal away a point and worked hard to turn ONE to TWO.
- Fourteen point lead is remarkable but the opponent, Okuhara managed to get 2 more points, score board was 18-4.
- Sindhu won the 1st game and this was the victorious step towards gold.
- Again, Sindhu started off well in the second game by getting 2 points, and now there was much pressure on Okuhara which can be said as one of the reasons for her defeat. She still managed to get 2 points but Sindhu cannot be considered as less as the score could be seen as 5-2.
- Sindhu got an advantage of 7 points in the second mid-game break, and score was 11-4 and her dominance still prevailed.
- The match now became one sided completely, a difference of 10 points and Sindhu consecutively got 5 points, score was 14-4.
- Okuhara scored 2 more points and the score was 19-6.
And finally, here the world had the world champion, P.V. Sindhu emerged as winner with 21-7, defeating her opponent Okuhara with a sweet revenge and bringing on the victory on her side. One cannot say that Okuhara did not put in her efforts but the Indian badminton player, Sindhu had some superpowers of her hard work today. It is often said it is your day today, 25TH AUGUST IS P.V. Sindhu’s DAY!
She got
what she hoped, prayed and played for, GOLD!
There were many speculations that people had for her talent, that she
could not do that, Sindhu very well knew the way to shut their mouth and
thinking. She finished with her fifth medal at the world champions and became
only the 4th singles player ever to have a full set of world
championship medals-
2013-
BRONZE
2014-
BRONZE
2017-
SILVER
2018-
SILVER
2019- GOLD,
Finally!
After her win, she said that,"I lost in the last two finals and this win was very important for me. I want to thank the crowd for supporting me every time. I won fo my country and I am very proud to be an Indian." She further thanked her coach Miss Kim and Gopi Sir along with entire support staff. She dedicated this win to her parents specially her mom, as it is also her birthday today. She had tears in her eyes as she stood at the top of the podium with GOLD around her neck. Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with many people tweeted and congratulated for her victory.
Sindhu's victory has surely brought pride to the nation and she has become an inspiration for the generations to come. We are proud of you our gem!