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This is just the beginning, says PV Sindhu

Rio Olympics silver medallist, PV Sindhu says her expectations are high as she will be followed closely

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1. PV Sindhu (centre) along with her coach Pullela Gopichand (left) and five-time world chess champion Viswanathan Anand at a felicitation function for the Olympic silver medallist in Mumbai on Wednesday 2. PV Sindhu with her parents on Wednesday
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The towering personality that PV Sindhu is, she dwarfed India's all-time great sportsmen chess master Viswanathan Anand and legendary cueist Geet Sethi by her appearance.

But, the 21-year-old Rio Olympics silver medallist shuttler will need to work harder from now on to emulate or even beat the kind of achievements that Sethi and Anand have achieved in their respective disciplines, the former being a nine-time world champion in cue sports while the latter has been five-time world chess champion.

Sindhu, however, has been making the right moves to reach the top ever since she won her maiden international title in Maldives in 2011. Two back-to-back bronze at the World Championships 2013 and 2014 paved the way to an Olympic silver, becoming the first Indian woman to bag a white metal at the Summer Games.

"From now on the responsibilities (expectations) are high and everyone's eyes are on me. This is just the beginning and I need to work harder," Sindhu said at yet another felicitation function, this time by Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ), which has been supporting the shuttler for the last six years. Her coach P Gopichand was also felicitated at the function.

Anand, a board member of OGQ, was all admiration for the shuttler and the sacrifices that she and her entire support staff including coach Pullela Gopichand and parents, made in the quest for an Olympic medal.

"Sindhu has made us very very happy," Anand said in his crisp speech here on Wednesday. At around the same time as the Olympics, Anand was playing in the Sinquefield Cup, part of the Grand Chess Tour, in St Louis (USA) in which he finished joint second.

Keeping track of the happenings in Rio, Anand said: "We all were optimistic about winning a lot of medals. It was a slow start and then anticipation builds. Slowly good news started coming with Abhinav (Bindra), Lalita (Babar) and Dipa (Karmakar). Then Sakshi's bronze medal was an amazing effort and then came the peak with Sindhu winning the silver.

"When she won her semifinal match, here was someone whose eyes were fixed on the gold. The determination, the ability to focus on one goal, the sacrifices including giving up the use of mobile phone for three months and the will to win, the way she fought for every point has lifted our spirits."

Sethi, co-founder of OGQ, said that while the nation was delighted of the two medals that India won, this was also the time for introspection.

"Whilst we all are delighted of your (Sindhu's) achievement, whilst we all are delighted of the fact that Gopichand is consistently producing world-class athletes, Sindhu's silver is the pinnacle of India's Olympic journey after the terrible start we had, this is also the time for introspection.

"The whole system of Indian spot needs a lot of introspection as to what have we (at OGQ) done wrong, how can we improve, what are we doing right."

Sethi said that the happy note for Indian sport was "when people start asking 'how many medals are we going to win' as against 'are we going to win a medal', as was the case until 2008 Beijing.

The fact that only Sindhu and Sakshi won was a little disheartening."

Sethi's abiding memory of Sindhu winning the silver was not necessarily of her standing on the podium but of her expression after losing the match. "That expression of frustration and anger of 'how am I losing this match' has catapulted the Indian sportsmen's dreams. Don't lose it," Sethi told Sindhu.

Guru, mentor, coach, father-figure, friend all sit nicely on Gopichand. The former All England champion has produced an Olympic medallist for the second successive Games.

Deep in his heart, he knew that India would return with a badminton medal. "Somewhere down the line deep inside, I knew we were going to win a medal. I took my Olympics jacket to Rio despite knowing very well that I won't attend attend the welcome ceremony or the closing ceremony. But I wanted to wear it on the flight back home. I just believed that we will win a medal," Gopichand disclosed on Wednesday.

Gopichand, 42, said that there was a lot of planning that went into Sindhu's silver medal win. "After losing five-six months to injury last year, the way we planned and plotted to perfection would not have been possible without divine's grace," said Gopichand, who has recently tonsured his head at Tirupati, where he visits at least once a year.

"What happened in Rio was perfect. Hopefully we will have more occasions (to celebrate), more players (being felicitated) and more medals from Sindhu."

Gopichand and Sindhu also praised the efforts of physio Kiran Challagundla for keeping Sindhu fit, especially after last year's injury.

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