Commonwealth Games | Kidambi Srikanth wins bronze in badminton singles

Kidambi Srikanth’s bronze in men’s singles is India’s first in badminton at the Birmingham Games

India’s Srikanth Nammalwar Kidambi in action during his bronze medal match against Singapore’s Jason Teh Jia Heng | Photo Credit: Reuters

World championships silver medallist Kidambi Srikanth and young women’s doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand signed off with bronze medals in the badminton competition of the Commonwealth Games here on Sunday.

India are also assured of at least two more medals with double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu and debutant Lakshya Sen notching up contrasting wins in the semifinal stage to stay on course for maiden gold medals at the Games.

Srikanth, a former world number one, made amends for his semifinal loss as he prevailed over Singapore’s world number 87 Jia Heng Teh 21-15 21-18 to claim a bronze medal to go with the silver that he had won four years ago in Gold Coast.

In the following bronze medal playoff, Treesa and Gayatri registered a 21-15 21-18 win over world number 159 Australian pair of Wendy Hsuan-Yu Chen and Gronya Somerville to finish third on the podium in their first major event together as a combination.

Srikanth said he was happy to return with a medal after losing the semifinals.

“I came thinking that I can win the gold but it didn’t go the way I thought. After winning the first game, I was leading 19-18 (semifinals), probably if I had scored the next point, things would have been different. But yes, I’m happy that at least I was able to win a medal,” he told PTI.

“It was such a tough outing. After almost winning the semi-final and losing it from a point to come back and play for a bronze, it’s been tough and exhausting. I just wanted to win the medal.

“It’s a big event. Nobody wants to give up easily after coming this far, everybody knows one-two points can change the moment. It was about staying focused and score next three-four points. I was not thinking about anything else.” Earlier, Sindhu, who has a silver and a bronze from the 2018 and 2014 editions, rode on her technical superiority to outwit Singapore’s Yeo Jia Min 21-19 21-17 in a 49-minute contest to reach her second successive final. The Indian had also beaten Min in the team event.