Tokyo Olympics: India's Sindhu hopes bronze can inspire new badminton generation

Dubai - India now has two medals (1 silver and 1 bronze) in the ongoing Olympics.

Indian badminton star P.V. Sindhu hopes she can inspire a new generation after adding Tokyo Olympic bronze to her 2016 silver medal on Sunday.

The world champion beat China’s He Bingjiao 21-13, 21-15 to add another prize to her collection, five years after finishing second at the Rio Games.

Now she hopes the world’s second-most populous country can use her achievement as a springboard for more badminton success.

“I’m sure a lot of youngsters and others will get motivated to work hard and come up,” she said.

“I’m sure we can do this. If I can do it, everybody can do it.”

Sindhu was aiming to become only the second Indian to win an individual Olympic gold medal, but lost to Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying in the semifinals.

She said she was “sad” at not being able to go one better than her 2016 silver.

“I think that’s my passion towards the sport — once you achieve something, you want to achieve more and more.”