Where does Sindhu's CWG gold medal rank against her other laurels?

Indian PV Sindhu defeated Canada's Michelle Li in the Women's singles final at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 and won the gold medal.

This was the first singles gold Sindhu won at the CWG after falling at the final stages over the last two editions. Li, her opponent on Monday, was the player who had beaten Sindhu in the semi-final of the 2014 edition. In 2018, it had been Saina Nehwal who had denied her the gold medal in all-Indian final.

On Monday, it was smooth-sailing for India's No. 1 badminton player as Sindhu only conceded a single game on her way to the final.

Earlier, she doled out 2-0 victories against Maldives' Fathimath Abdul Razzaq, Uganda's Husina Kobugabe, and Singapore's Jia Min Yeo, while she won 2-1 against Malaysia's Jin Wei Goh.

Even though an Olympics gold medal is still to be won, this gold medal at the CWG fills Sindhu's medal cabinet with the one gold that was missing.

However, one might wonder where this CWG gold ranks amongst the athlete's other notable achievements. Some of her laurels include:

• Two Olympic medals (Silver in Rio, Bronze in Tokyo)
• First Indian woman to be crowned World Champion in 2019.
• First Indian to win a gold at the BWF World Tour in 2018.
• Two-time Asian Games medallist
• Five Commonwealth Games medals

Yes, medalling at the Olympics and Asian Games seems far superior than doing so at the Commonwealth Games, at least on paper. But for Sindhu, the journey at the CWG has been one of a slow and steady rise.

It was in 2014 when she won her first medal at the Games, a bronze, after defeating Malaysia's Jing Yi Tee. Then in Gold Coast, the final ended with an Indian 1-2, with Saina Nehwal pipping Sindhu for the gold. She, however, clinched a gold in the 2018 edition in the Mixed Team event.

In Birmingham, Sindhu added another silver to her kitty after she was part of the Mixed Team which came second in the event. As one can clearly see, the gold was the only one missing from the set, at least the individual event one.

With today's victory in straight sets, PV Sindhu wins her first Commonwealth Games gold medal, and thereby completes the set.

This is also her first gold for the country at a multi-sporting event. She will now look to complete the Asiad as well as Olympics sets in 2023 and 2024 respectively.