Golden day for Indian Badminton in Birmingham. Image Courtesy – The Hindu
Yesterday was the golden day in the history of Indian Badminton. The Badminton Gold medal came to PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen. India’s men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won the gold medal also. All the matches were very much contesting.
PV Sindhu played Commonwealth Games for the first time in 2014. She had to return to Glasgow with bronze. Two years later, she won silver at the Rio Olympics. It was assumed that Sindhu would change the colour of the medal in Gold Coast.
But not gold, at that time she had to return with silver. The dream finally came true in Birmingham. World Championships, Olympics, Asian Championships — there was no such competition where Sindhu has not won a medal. Only the Gold medal was expected in the Commonwealth games. That too was fulfilled.
After three tries and 13 years of hard work, she finally succeeded by defeating Canada’s Michelle Lee. Sindhu’s emotions were naturally out of control. After winning the Gold she said, “I have been waiting for this day for a long time. Very happy and finally managed to win gold. Winning gold was very important to boost confidence. I waited for 4 years. Personally, the Commonwealth Games this time went very well.”
Sindhu will have little time to rest after achieving the goals in the Commonwealth Games. The World Championship starts in Tokyo on August 21. Sindhu will have to go down there again to win the world. In that context, she said, “I am looking forward to giving my best in the World Championship as well. I want to enjoy this moment for now. Need a little break to come back being stronger.”
Read: PV Sindhu gifted India a Bronze Medal
She said, “Everyone will leave here together. I will go home and celebrate with my family. I will enjoy it with my parents. They supported me a lot. They had to watch this match sitting in the country. No praise is enough for the hard work and commitment they have done for me.”
Lakshya Sen won gold for the first time at the Commonwealth Games. Image Courtesy – The Hindu
On the other hand, Lakshya Sen won gold for the first time at the Commonwealth Games by defeating Jane Young of Malaysia. He was seen taking off his jersey immediately after winning the three-game battle. He danced without the jersey with the audience in the gallery.
The then captain of the Indian cricket team, Sourav Ganguli, took off his jersey after defeating the England team on their soil to win the Natwest Trophy 20 years ago. The same thing happened in badminton.
He gave all the credit to his coach Prakash Padukone for winning the gold. He said, “He has been my role model since childhood. Whenever I talk to him, he inspires me by sharing his life experiences. He himself won this medal earlier. So, happy to touch him.”
After a tough fight in the first game, Lakshya blew away the opposition in the next two games. The badminton player from Uttarakhand, India, said, “After losing the first game, I was confident of coming back. I was happy with the way I played in the second and third games. Not happy with the decisions I made towards the end of the first game. But keeping it in mind, I lost the first game by a narrow margin. So it won’t be difficult to come back in the second and third games. I gained confidence after going ahead in the second game and kept that rhythm and won the rest of the match.”
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won Men’s Doubles Gold. Image Courtesy – The Statesman
In the men’s doubles match, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty won the gold medal after defeating England’s Ben Lane and Sean Vendy. The scorecard was 21-15 and 21-13 which is to be a rather one-sided clash. The Indian pair had won the silver medal in the last Games on Gold Coast.
In totality, India had a great day in the Commonwealth Games 2022. Indian Badminton fans are very happy with the great result by the shuttlers.
