PV Sindhu on Sunday became the first Indian to win a gold medal at the BWF Badminton World Championships by beating Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 21-7 21-7 in a lop-sided final in Basel.
It was Sindhu’s fifth World Championships medal – joint-most for a woman singles player with former Olympics and world champion Zhang Ning of China – to go with the two successive silvers and a couple of bronze medals.
Along with Sindhu, B Sai Praneeth also provided a podium finish for India at this year’s World Championships. The 27-year-old won the bronze medal after losing to eventual champion and world No 1 Kento Momota in the semi-finals.
The tournament ended on Sunday and there were several records that were broken by Indian and foreign players through the course of the week.
Here are some key statistics:
- Sindhu has become the first Indian to win a gold medal at the tournament.
- Sindhu is now tied with Zhang Ning for the most singles medals in the women’s section. She won bronze in 2013 and 2014, silver in 2017 and 2018, before clinching gold this year.
- Sindhu is the fastest among both men and women to get to five World Championship medals. She has won them in just six appearances.
- Since she made her debut in 2013, Sindhu has won 21 matches at the worlds, which is the most for any woman.
- After Li Lingwei, Gong Ruina and Zhang Ning, Sindhu is the fourth player to have won all three medals (gold, silver and bronze) in her career.
- Indonesia’s Hendra Setiawan, at 35, became the oldest world champion in this decade. Second on this list is his 31-year-old Mohammad Ahsa, Setiawan’s men’s singles partner at the event.
- This is the first time since 1995 that China won just one gold medal at the tournament and the first time that no Chinese man finished on the podium.
- This is the first time Japan finished on top of the overall medals tally at the worlds.
- This is the first time Thailand finished with three medals in the same edition of the tournament, while India finished with two medals for the second time only.
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