India’s badminton star PV Sindhu did a brave effort to win a gold medal for India but ended up with silver medal in the women's singles badminton championship while her Spain counterpart Carolina Marin won the match and gold medal at the Rio Olympics on Friday.

The 21-year-old star, lose the match with two-time World Champion from Spain by 21-19, 12-21, 15-21.

"What do I say? It's been a surprisingly great week. I played well, I had some great matches and now, I am Olympic silver medalist. I never thought I would make it this far. Overall I am on cloud nine at the moment, this feels amazing," Sindhu said after she received the medal.

Indian badminton chief coach Pullela Gopichand on Friday said that he was proud of the fact that the country has won two consecutive medals in Olympics.


Gopichand said "It's a one in a lifetime or one in a million times or, for us, one in a billion times that somebody gets an opportunity to stand on that (medal) podium and for someone like me it was a part of the journey as well."

"I am very happy and grateful to God and very grateful to people who have supported this journey, who believed in us. Immediately after the game, I told her, don't think we have lost a match, but that we have won a medal. This I told her so that she doesn't forget the effort she put in the last week," Gopichand added.

Sindhu is the fifth Indian woman to win an individual medal in the Olympics after Karnam Malleshwari , Mary Kom, Saina Nehwal and Sakshi Malik.

Across India, tens of thousands of people cheered in front of their TV set and congratulatory messages flooded social media. President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal were among the first to post their messages on her big win.


Superstar Rajinikanth also congratulated Sindhu and tweeted that he had become her fan.


Japan's Nozomi Okuhara won the bronze medal after London Olympic champion Li Xuerui pulled out with a knee injury that she suffered during the semifinal match against Marin on Thursday.

Also Read: P V Sindhu Wins the Semi-Finals in Olympic Games

BY M. DIVYA SRI