Sindhu’s Olympic silver marks a glorious year for badminton

NEW DELHI: (ONT bureau) :27/12 P V Sindhu cemented her position as a dominant force on the world stage with an Olympic silver medal while Saina Nehwal continued to battle with injuries in a year, which saw Indian badminton take giant strides at the global platform.
It turned out to be a watershed year for Sindhu, who reached the upper echelons of world badminton with a silver medal at Rio Games — an achievement also for her mentor and chief coach Pullela Gopichand, who became the only Indian coach to produce two Olympic medallists.
On the other hand, for the first part of the year, it was Saina’s battle with injuries which dominated the headlines even though she was considered to be the best bet for India at Rio. The Indian ace fought against time to recover from an Achilles tendons and went on to win the Australian Super Series.
Despite her two bronze medals at the World Championship, Sindhu, meanwhile, was still considered one of the hopefuls but not a serious contender for the gold medal, partly because of her early exits from tournaments in the run-up to the Games.
But Olympics had contrasting fates awaiting the duo. While Saina exited in the second round and later it came to light that she had a bone chip floating inside her knee area, Sindhu went on to become the first Indian shuttler to win a silver at Games and with the feat she finally stepped out of the Saina’s shadow.