P V Sindhu scripted history as she became the first Indian to win badminton World Championships gold by beating familiar rival Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in a lop-sided final here on Sunday. It was sheer dominance by the Indian as she romped home 21-7 21-7 in the summit clash that lasted just 38 minutes.
Although Okuhara won the first point of the first game,Sindhu won eight straight points after that to race to a 8-1 lead. Okuhara managed just one more point before the interval with Sindhu leading 11-2.
The mauling continued for much of the second period of theopener, which ended in just 16 minutes. Okuhara got a few consecutive pointstowards the end to extend her score to 7 but Sindhu sealed the issue on herfirst game point.
In the second game, Okuhara briefly kept pace until thescore was 3-2 in Sindhu’s favour after which the Indian took six consecutivepoints to race to a 9-2 lead.
Okuhara won two more points but Sindhu kept her foot on thepedal and went into the interval with a 11-4 lead.Okuhara went on to take justthree more points in the second period as Sindhu continued to storm her way tothe title. Once again, she managed to get over the line on her first matchpoint.
This was the 16th match between Sindhu and Okuhara. Sindhunow leads 9-7 head-to-head, including three victories in the last five meetings before Sunday’s clash.
PM Narendra Modi led the wishes on Twitter: The stupendously talented, PV Sindhu makes India proud again!Congratulations to her for winning the Gold at the BWF World Championships. The passion and dedication with whichshe’s pursued badminton is inspiring.
PV Sindhu’s success will inspire generations of players