Dazzling trio: Sindhu, Srikanth & Lakshya shuttled to glory

New Delhi: PV Sindhu’s legend grew with a second Olympic medal, Kidambi Srikanth regained his touch with a historic World championship silver and Lakshya Sen continued to dazzle but the listless performance in team events was a significant low for Indian badminton in a topsy-turvy year.

The COVID-19 pandemic expectedly disrupted the international calender with many events either cancelled or rescheduled but Indian shuttlers grabbed the opportunities even though a title win eluded them.

If Rio Olympics silvermedallist Sindhu led from the front with a bronze medal at Tokyo and a silver at the season-ending World Tour Final, Srikanth and Lakshya dished out a year-end special, scooping a silver and bronze respectively at the World Championships.

It was a moment to rejoice as for the first time, two Indian men returned with medals from one edition of the World Championships, a feat that was earlier achieved by Sindhu and Saina Nehwal in women’s singles at the 2017 Glasgow event.

However, neither Sindhu nor Srikanth or Lakshya, who had reached the finals at Dutch Open, could go the full distance as India’s title draught continued.

The fact that BWF decided to squeeze nine tournaments into 12 weeks after the resumption of the international circuit also didn’t help things as many players were left injured.

Sindhu, the 2019 World champion, was subdued at the Thailand leg at the beginning of the year but she soon reached the final at Swiss Open in March before coronavirus forced the suspension of three Olympic qualifiers.

Already assured of a place at the Tokyo Games, Sindhu then sealed her place among the greatest when she added a bronze to the Rio silver medal at the biggest multi-sport extravaganza. -(PTI)