BWF World Championships 2019: PV Sindhu became 1st Indian to win gold

August 26, 2019

PV Sindhu became 1st Indian to win a Badminton World Championships gold by beating familiar rival Nozomi Okuhara of Japan. Sindhu crushed Okuhara with 21-7, 21-7 in just 38 minutes in a one-sided final held at St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland. Sindhu’s gold is second medal that India won at BWF World Championships in 2019 edition with Sai Praneeth winning a bronze in men’s singles category.

Key Highlights

The 2019 edition was 16th match between Sindhu and Okuhara. Last time Sindhu and Okuhara met in finals of World Championships in 2017. In this encounter which lasted for nearly 2 hours and involved a 73-shot rally, Okuhara emerged victorious in end. Sindhu now leads 9-7 head-to-head, including 3 victories in last 5 meetings between duo before recent clash.

Sindhu is also 2nd women shuttler to have 5 medals and 3rd to have medals in all three colours.

This is P V Sindhu’s 5th medal at World Championships. Her full set of medals at World Championships include- 2 bronze (in 2013 and 2014 edition), 2 silver (she won in last two editions) and 1 gold

Badminton Association of India has announced a cash reward of ₹20 lakh for Sindhu.