India’s ace shuttler PV Sindhu on Sunday defeated China’s He Bingjiao to win the women’s singles bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics. In doing so the current World Champion became the first Indian woman to win two individual Olympic medals. 

Sindhu, who returned with medals from each of the big-ticket events such as Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and BWF World Tour Finals in the last five years, outwitted eighth seed Bing Jiao 21-13 21-15 to add a bronze to her silver that she had secured at the 2016 Rio Games.

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Up against an opponent, who has beaten her nine times so far 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 gone back after collecting a silver, while boxer Lovlina Borgohain is assured of at least bronze so far.

Sindhu’s loss to World No 1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the women’s singles semifinals meant India has to continue waiting for first-ever Olympic gold in badminton. 

The 26-year-old silver-medallist from the Rio Games lost 18-21 12-21 in a 40-minute clash. 

“I’m a bit sad because it’s the semifinals, but I tried my best, it’s just not my day. I fought until the end,” she said after the match.

With this win, the sixth seeded Sindhu also made up for the straight-game loss to Ying.

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She had beaten Japanese world no 5 Akane Yamaguchi in the quarterfinals.

Earlier, men’s singles player B Sai Praneeth and the men’s doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy had failed to qualify for the knockout stage.