PV Sindhu shines bright at Tokyo & becomes first Indian woman to win two Olympic medals

PV Sindhu on Sunday ensured that her name will be written in bold letters in the annals of Indian sporting history. The shuttler-par-excellence became the first Indian woman athlete to win two individual Olympic medals, as she beat China's He Bing Jiao to win the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. She had earlier won the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

PV Sindhu wins bronze medal

Sindhu won the match 21-13, 21-15 and completely dominated her opponent.

Bing Jiao played a great cross court shot to end a long rally and then won a couple points on the bounce to tie the first game at 5-5. Bing Jiao continued to force Sindhu to play at the net but the Indian was up to the challenge and went ahead 8-6. The two players played out a great rally with Sindhu leading 9-8 as Bing Jiao produced some great defensive play, but the Indian closed out the point with a powerful smash to go ahead 10-8. Sindhu took her advantage to 11-8 with another smash as the two players went into the mid-game break.

PV Sindhu shines bright:

Sindhu, who had lost the women's singles semi-final to Chinese Taipei's Tai Tzu-Ying 18-21, 12-21, controlled the match from the beginning and used her powerful smashes to subdue the Chinese opponent. She thus became the fourth woman to win a singles medal in consecutive Olympic Games.

Since losing the Rio Olympics final, Sindhu has risen to become one of the most consistent female players in badminton. She might not have been at the top of the BWF rankings ever but has made her presence felt in almost all the top tournaments, in the last five years.

She is the reigning world champion, having won the title in 2019, after failing at the final hurdle in 2017 and 2018.

Stay tuned with the newstrack to get fastest updates. Click @englishnewstrack to follow us on Facebook and @newstrackmedia to follow on Twitter.