New Delhi: Olympic silver medallist in women's badminton, PV Sindhu, will be felicitated by the Andhra Pradesh government on Tuesday, just a day after a grand welcome was according to her by the state government of Telangana.
Sindhu reached Vijayawada on Tuesday morning and preparations are underway for her welcome ceremony. She is on a road rally from Gannavaram Airport to Indira Gandhi Stadium in Vijayawada, where the felicitation will take place.
Vijayawada member of parliament, Kesineni Nani of the Telugu Desam Party, who made arrangements for the rally, arranged for the special flight and is travelling with Sindhu, her coach and their families, who are reportedly keen to also take a holy dip in the Krishna river and visit a temple.
The Andhra Pradesh government has already announced a reward of Rs 3 crores for the shuttler.
On Monday, it was reported that the country’s highest sporting award — the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna — will be conferred on four athletes with Olympic medallists P.V. Sindhu and Sakshi Malik set to be honoured alongside trail-blazing gymnast Dipa Karmakar and ace shooter Jitu Rai.
While shuttler Sindhu created history by becoming the first woman athlete from India to grab a silver in the Rio Olympics, Sakshi bagged a bronze in the 58kg wrestling. Dipa missed the bronze by 0.15 points but her clean finish in Produnova vault won the hearts of the nation.
Badminton queen Sindhu gets grand welcome in Telangana
On Monday, PV Sindhu was basking in the afterglow of an Olympic silver medal, and revelling in the fact that she just fulfilled a longtime dream of hers to win an Olympic medal, even as the state government organised a felicitation in her favour at Gachibowli stadium in Hyderabad.
“I never really thought I would play in the final,” Sindhu said, adding: “But I believed in myself; Gopi sir (chief national coach Pullela Gopichand) had faith in me, and my dream of an Olympic medal came true,” the 21-year-old said.
“My parents, my coach sacrificed so much. It’s only because of them I got to where I am,” Sindhu added.
“It was my first Olympics, so I was both nervous and excited. Nobody expected me to win a medal, but I prepared well for each match, strategised perfectly, so I’m happy with the way I played,” she said.
Sindhu captured the imagination of a whole nation when she became the first Indian shuttler to enter an Olympic final, and won many hearts when, after losing, she gave a warm hug to Carolina Marin, congratulating the Spaniard.
“There will always be aggression on the court, but that rivalry only lasts as long as the match would. Once the match finished, we went back to being good friends. Marin played really well that day, and deserved the win. It was her day,” Sindhu said.
When asked if the role of women in sport has changed, Sindhu said: “Things have changed for women in sports, especially in India. We still have a long way to go, but women won medals for us at the London Olympics, and this time, only women won medals for India,” she said to a smattering of applause.
Finally, Sindhu said she would always be grateful to Gopi for investing so much time and energy in her. “Gopi sir has done so much for me. He has so many players to take care of, so many juniors. It has been more tiring for him than me, I can tell you that much. I must be grateful to him for all that he’s done.” Sindhu will, on Tuesday, go to Vijayawada where the government of Andhra Pradesh will felicitate her.
Sindhu court at school
Sister Rosily Theckanath, principal of Auxilium High School where PV Sindhu had studied till Class X, was present at the badminton star's felicitation ceremony on Monday and presented a bouquet to the Olympian.
Speaking to DC, Sister Theckanath said that like Sindhu, students interested in a career in sports should not neglect studies, and also that schools should provide support to such aspiring students.
She said, “Sindhu used to go for different competitions but after returning she used to go personally to teachers and get her doubts cleared over missed lessons. She used to put in extra hard work but never let either her interest in sports or her academics get affected due to each other.” She said the school was working towards having a badminton court for students, which would be named after Sindhu and inaugurated by her
