Bronze in Delhi, facts in order
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand take India’s first women’s doubles World Championships medal since 2011. Not the first ever — the record still remembers Jwala–Ashwini.
India’s second women’s doubles World Championships medal came 15 years after the first.
Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand Pullela signed off with bronze at the BWF World Championships in New Delhi, losing their women’s doubles semifinal 21-18, 13-21, 8-21 to China’s Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning on Saturday. The match lasted an hour and 11 minutes, and in badminton’s format the losing semi-finalists both take bronze.
It is the pair’s maiden World Championships medal, and India’s first women’s doubles medal in 15 years — the second ever after Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa’s bronze in 2011. The venue was the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium; the Chinese pair came in as world No.1 and defending champions.
For Telangana readers keeping score: Gayatri is from Hyderabad’s badminton nursery; the medal is national, the training base is ours. The Centre and its cheerleaders will do the ribbon-cutting on TV; the pipeline that keeps producing players did the work. The record — and the medal — can live without the noise.