PV Sindhu emerges from Saina Nehwal’s shadow in emphatic style

It is very difficult for parents to decide whether to allow their children to stay away from home — especially girls.

PV Ramana and his wife Vijaya had to tackle that tricky situation when their daughter Sindhu started training at the Pullela Gopichand Academy, Hyderabad. They live in the twin-city of Secunderabad while Gopi’s academy was on the other end in Gacchibowli.

Daily commuting from home to academy was akin to running a marathon, actually more than 50km and Ramana had to leave home along with Sindhu at 4.30 am so that they could reach in time for practice. (Gopi had once acknowledged that Sindhu was never late for practice despite the distance she had to travel).

The decision

The Pusarla family finally decided to allow Sindhu to stay at the academy, getting to meet their daughter only on the weekends when she would visit home.

Training at the top academy was an economic burden too but Ramana, who represented India in volleyball and was awarded Arjuna in 2000, and his wife Vijaya, herself a volleyball player, hung on gamely as they saw the spark in their daughter.

That decision has now paid off as Sindhu reached the final of the Olympic Games women’s singles badminton competition in the Rio, assuring herself and India at least a silver medal.

Ramana later shifted closer to the academy to cut the travel.

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Sindhu’s progress through the ranks gave them hope that she would one day go on to achieve what the parents could not – represent the country in the Olympics. Sindhu soon achieved that and now gone beyond that target and is set to win an Olympic medal.

While the focus was on Saina Nehwal, Sindhu progressed quietly into medal contention, defeating higher ranked opponents in pre-quarters, quarters and semifinals.

Sindhu has always lived in the shadow of Saina, her senior at the Gopichand Academy. While Saina climbed up to the rankings to be World No 1, Sindhu was always away from the spotlight despite winning a bronze in the World Championships twice, a feat that even Saina could not achieve. While Saina bagged the bronze medal in London Olympics, Sindhu had to endure some indifferent results and her ranking remained lower than her city rival.

But on Thursday, Sindhu again went one better than Saina in the Olympics, assuring herself at least a silver.

Read | Sport stars wish PV Sindhu luck ahead of Olympic gold medal match

“She has always known as PV Ramana’s daughter till now. From now on, I would like to be known as Sindhu’s father,” Ramana told a small gathering of supporters and media after watching his daughter defeat Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara on the television at his residence.

Ramana was obviously ecstatic that his daughter’s hard work and dedication has paid off and thanked current coach Gopichand and her earlier coaches Mehboob Ali and SM Arif for the guidance they provided to Sindhu.

“In the last few years, Gopi has been like a father figure to her,” said Ramana, hoping his daughter do her best in the final against Carolina Marin of Spain and win gold.