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The day clearly belonged to Indian women athletes. Shuttler PV Sindhu assured India of at least a silver medal with a win in semi-final of Women’s singles at Rio Olympics 2016. India has now two confirmed medals in this Olympics. Sindhu will become the first women to win a silver or gold medal at Olympics. Four women have won a gold medal in Olympics that includes Sakshi Malik, PT Usha, Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom. Sindhu made her way to the final beating her Japanese opponent Nozomi Okuhara by 21-19 and 21-11. She displayed nerves of steel in the first set of the match. Okuhara is currently ranked at No.6 in the Women’s World Badminton rankings. (ALSO READ: Wrestler Sakshi Malik wins India’s first medal at Rio 2016)
It was a tough fight for Sindhu in the first set with both the shuttlers scoring one after another. It came right down to the wire and Sindhu had two game points. She could not make it in the first game point but came back and smashed her way to a first set win. The story of second set was pretty similar to the first one for most part. At break Sindhu was leading the first set by 11-10 with only one point lead by her side. All of a sudden, she launched a brutal onslaught on Japanese shuttler and scored 10 points in a row to book a berth in the finals. She will now face two-time reigning champion Carolina Marin of Spain in the final.(ALSO READ: Rio Olympics 2016 India: Schedule, Fixtures of Events in IST)
In wrestling Babita Kumari failed to go past the Round of 16. Expectations were high from her after Sakshi Malik’s bronze-winning bout a day before. Babita could not live up to the high expectations and lost to Greek wrestler Maria Prevolaraki by 5-1. She was struggling in the first period, by the time it was completed, she was trailing by 3 points. At the end of second period she could only manage one point and eventually lost the game.
Golfer Aditi Ashok is tied at eighth position. The 18 year old has been performing well for the past two days and keeping herself in the medal contention. Meanwhile, wrestler Narsingh Yadav’s Olympic dream came to an end after CSA put a 4-year ban on him for doping charges. He was to compete in 74 kg Freestyle wrestling. He was one of the potential medal contenders for India at Rio. However, India have PV Sindhu by their side about to make history. People are hoping that they finally get to hear India’s National Anthem in medal distribution ceremony.
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