2019 BWF World Championships
P V Sindhu gets India's first-ever World title in badminton, fifth across all sports
P V Sindhu becomes the new world champion in badminton toppling Japan's Nozomi Okuhara in the finals of BWF World Championship 2019 in Basel, Switzerland.
It's a historic day for India as ace shuttler P V Sindhu becomes the new world champion in badminton toppling Japan's Nozomi Okuhara in the finals of BWF World Championship 2019 in Basel, Switzerland. Sindhu bags the elusive gold medal after her a long wait which resulted in her securing four medals earlier -- bronze in 2013, 2014 and silver in 2017 and 2018.
Sindhu becomes the first Indian shuttler to win the World Championship, after becoming winning the silver medal in 2016 Rio Olympics and the BWF World Tour last year, which were till now two of her greatest achievements. The Hyderabadi world no. 5 shuttler's achievement adds to the list of Indian sporting greats who have also earned the title of world champions. The 24-year-old becomes the 13th person from India to claim the top honours in an Olympic sport.
The first time India claimed the top honours in a world championship was back in 1994, when Karnam Malleshwari won the top honours in the 54kg weightlifting event. She went on to repeat the same feat again in 1995. India had to wait for 22 long years for a new world champion in weightlifting after Mirabai Chanu picked won the title in 2017 at Anaheim, United States.
India's reign in boxing came through the hands of the legendary Mary Kom who at just the age of 19 won the boxing world championship in 2002. She went on to win the title five more times in 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010 and the latest being 2018 at the age of 35. Mary's boxing supremacy were taken forward by Jenny R.L. Lekha K.C. and Sarita Devi, who all won in different weight categories in 2006.
India's sole world championship title in wrestling came through Sushil Kumar in 2010, who won the title in 66 kg freestyle category in Moscow.
Shooting has always been India's stronghold which brought India its first-ever individual Olympics gold. It was the same flagbearer Abhinav Bindra, who brought the World Championship gold two years ago in 2006 at Zagreb in 10m air rifle event. In the same year, another Indian, Manavjit Sandhu, picked up the top honours in the Trap event. India's third gold in shooting World Championship came from Tejaswini Sawant at 50m rifle event in Munich in the year 2010. After a wait of eight years, again the World Championship title came to India in 2018 through Ankur Mittal in the double trap event. He was joined by Om Prakash Mitharwal in the 50 m rifle event.
Sindhu's win today comes as a proud moment for Indian badminton and might be a precursor to other World Championship titles which are set to take place from the next month.
