INDIA'S WONDER WOMEN

AGAINST DAUNTING ODDS, INDIA’S SPORTSWOMEN DID US PROUD, BUT THE OVERALL MEDAL TALLY WAS DISAPPOINTING. HERE’S A BLUEPRINT FOR WINNING MORE MEDALS IN THE FUTURE

- BORIA MAJUMDAR

I WAS IN TEARS AFTER LOSING IN THE SEMIS. MY COACH, PARK, REMINDED ME THERE IS A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A BRONZE AND FINISHING FOURTH. THAT HIT ME—I KNEW I HAD TO GET THAT MEDAL”

P.V. SINDHU, 26
BRONZE, WOMEN’S SINGLES, BADMINTON

I WAS DEJECTED AFTER THE RIO GAMES. AFTER WINNING THE 2018 COMMONWEALTH GAMES, I HAD DREAMT OF WINNING AN OLYMPIC MEDAL. IT HAS FINALLY COME TRUE” MIRABAI CHANU, 26 SILVER, WOMEN’S 49 KG WEIGHTLIFTING

I HAD LOST TO N.C. CHEN FOUR TIMES. FOR ME, THE CHALLENGE WAS TO PROVE TO MYSELF THAT I COULD BEAT HER. I DIDN’T HAVE A STRATEGY. MAIN KHUL KE KHELI”

LOVLINA BORGOHAIN, 23
BRONZE, WOMEN’S WELTERWEIGHT BOXING

P.V. SINDHU HAD JUST WON her second Olympic medal and the few of us from India who were in the stands at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza were understandably ecstatic. After all, Olympic medals are still hard to come by for India, and Sindhu is the happy exception who lived up to her billing, with back-to-back medals on the world’s biggest sporting stage.