Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], November 7 (ANI): Youth Olympic Games silver medallist badminton player Tanvi Patri said she was proud to represent India and win a medal for the country, adding that qualifying for the 2028 Olympic Games is her next major goal.
Patri became the first Indian women's singles badminton player to clinch a Youth Olympics silver medal after she went down against reigning world junior champion Zhang Yi Xin in a nail-biting summit clash in Dakar, Senegal, on Thursday.
The 15-year-old saved six match points and missed three of her own to go down 15-21, 21-13, 26-24 in an hour and 22 minutes in a gold medal clash that kept everyone watching live action on the edge of their seats.
Speaking to ANI, Tanvi said she felt proud to represent India and win a medal for the country, adding that she hopes to qualify for the 2028 Olympic Games. She also described her experience at the Olympic Village as a positive one.
"I feel good and proud to be able to represent my country and bring a medal for my country. My future goal is I would like to qualify for the 2028 main Olympics if I can. I feel really good, and the Olympic Village was also so good," she said.
Before Tanvi, HS Prannoy (2010) and Lakshya Sen (2018) had won individual silver medals in the Youth Olympic Games. Sen had also bagged the mixed team gold with Team Alpha, which included shuttlers from eight different countries.
In the gold medal match on Thursday, Tanvi took her time to get going in the opening game before she claimed seven straight points to go from 3-5 to 10-5. The Indian created many openings with her punch tosses and controlled the net brilliantly to then bag the opening game in 25 minutes.
She began the second game by taking a 4-0 lead before the drift coming from behind her started to affect Tanvi’s control on the clears, and Zhang took control of the game after the mid-game interval to force a decider.
Zhang then took control of the decider early with her trademark cross-court drops to open up a 19-10 lead. Tanvi fought back to close the gap to four points at 19-15, but an error on a cross-court smash from the Indian handed her opponent five match points.
Tanvi saved those five match points and had three chances of wrapping up the gold medal. But it was the experience of Zhang that ultimately made the difference. (ANI)
Tanvi Patri eyes qualification for 2028 Olympics after historic Youth Olympic silver
