Shuttler Sindhu wins Asia Under-19 Championship

Rising India shuttler P V Sindhu clinched the Asia Youth Under-19 Championship title with a thrilling three-game victory over Japan's Okuhara Nozomi at Gimcheon, Korea on Saturday.

The top seeded Indian, who turned 17 last Thursday, bounced back from a game down to see off the second seeded Japanese 18-21, 21-17, 22-20 in almost an hour in the women's singles final at the Gimcheon Indoor Stadium.

The World No 25 Sindhu had defeated third seed Thai Ongbamrungphan Busanan and sixth seed Sun Yu of China in the semi-finals and quarter-finals respectively.

"She is very happy with the win. We spoke to her through Skype. She will be coming to Delhi tomorrow night and from there will travel back to Hyderabad the next morning," Sindhu's father P V Ramana, also an ace Indian volleyball player said.

"She was lagging behind in the last game. But she did well to recover. A foul committed by the Japanese girl didn't go in her favour but it all panned out well in the end," said Ramana, also an Arjuna award winner, who was a member of the Indian team that won the bronze medal in the 1986 Asian Games at Seoul.

In the summit clash, Sindhu narrowly lost in the opening game but the gutsy Indian came back strongly in the second.

In the decider, she was leading 19-16 but the Japanese reeled off three points to claw back. Sindhu got a point but Nozomi made it 20-20. However, the Indian was unfazed and registered two more points to seal the final with a tap.

Only in her second year in senior international circuit, Sindhu has so far won four international challenge events in Maldives, Indonesia, Swiss, Tata Open in Mumbai and finished runners-up in Dutch Open.

Another promising shuttler and top seed Sameer Verma had lost in the semi-finals to third seed Momota Kento of Japan on Friday.