Pusarla V Sindhu won the women’s singles badminton bronze medal play-off on Sunday, beating China’s He Bing Jiao 21-13, 21-15 to become only the second Indian to win two medals at the Olympics.
The 26-year-old reigning World champion was just too good for the Chinese as she added to the silver she won at the 2016 Rio Games.
Wrestler Sushil Kumar was the first and only other Indian to win two Olympic medals, following his bronze at the 2008 Games in Beijing and silver at the 2012 edition in London.
Up against an opponent who has beaten her nine times in the last 15 meetings, Sindhu showed great determination to outplay Bing Jiao with her aggression to scoop India's third medal at Tokyo.
Weightlifter Mirabai Chanu has already returned home after winning a silver, while boxer Lovlina Borgohain is assured of at least a bronze.
The sixth seeded Sindhu thus made up for the straight-games loss to World No. 1 Tai Tzu Ying in Saturday’s semi-finals.
She had beaten Japanese world No. 5 Akane Yamaguchi in the quarter-finals.
Earlier, men's singles player B Sai Praneeth and the men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy failed to qualify for the knock-out stage.
