15-Year-Old Tanvi Patri Breaks New Ground, Enters Youth Olympic Badminton Final
In the winner-takes-all clash, Tanvi got the better of Smrithi in straight games to top Group F and qualified for the quarterfinals.
Talented shuttler Tanvi Patri on Wednesday scripted history by becoming the first Indian woman to reach the badminton semifinals at the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar, Senegal. The 15-year-old from Odisha defeated Thailand's Kungkaew Kakanik 21-17, 21-13 to enter the last four. Tanvi, who trains at the Centre for Excellence in Bengaluru, will face Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semifinal. The two had met at the 2024 Pathum Thani Junior International Series in Thailand, where Tanvi suffered a 14-21, 10-21 defeat.Only three Indian shuttlers, HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen, and Aditya Joshi had previously reached the badminton semifinals at the Youth Olympics.
Prannoy won silver at the inaugural edition in Singapore in 2010, while Lakshya also finished runner-up at the 2018 Games in Buenos Aires. Aditya reached the boys' singles semifinals in 2014 but returned without a medal.
Tanvi had earlier won the girls' singles U-17 title at the Badminton Asia U-17 and U-15 Championships in Chengdu, China, in an all-Indian final. She thus became the first Indian to win both the continental U-15 and U-17 titles.
Earlier, Tanvi topped the Women's Singles - Group F with a third successive win in the preliminary stage, defeating Australia's Smrithi Adepu 21-4, 21-12 in her last league match.Both Tanvi and Smrithi had won their respective matches in the group against Jeong Yu Jang of South Korea and Sara Patricia Delgado Gonzallex of Mexico before Tuesday's final Group stage matches.
In the winner-takes-all clash, Tanvi got the better of Smrithi in straight games to top Group F and qualified for the quarterfinals.
The badminton competition at the Dakar Youth Olympic Games features men's and women's singles events, with 32 players competing in each category. The competition is being played across two stages - Group Stage followed by the Knockouts.
The players were divided into eight groups of four, with each player facing the other three players in their respective group. The group winner from each group advanced to the knockout stage, with the quarterfinals followed by semifinals and medal matches, with the gold and bronze medals decided on November 5.