According to sources P V. sindhu did not break down, but she had tears in her eyes when the national anthem was being played at St. Jakobshalle in Basel on Sunday. Moments after becoming the first Indian to win the BWF World Championships, a feat taller than her 5’10” frame, she could have let herself go. But she did not.
sindhu quietly thanked her mother on her birthday, said she won it for the country which celebrate her along with Saina Nehwal as queens of badminton, and wore the gold medal with pride as her childhood mentor and national coach Pullela Gopichand watched from a distance. There was calmness about the stage, but never quite about the enormity of her feat.
After enduring a poor year given her lofty standards, Sindhu, like she always does, rose to the big stage and saved her best for the final act. The 24 year old crushed japan’s Nozomi Okuhara 21-7, 21-7 in just 36 minutes in one of the most lopsided finals ever to add another feather to her glittering cap, which gave the sport in the country wings after Saina had set the wheels in motion. sindhu had come close to winning the World Championships on two occasions in the past two years.
