Sindhu, Sai, Srikanth felicitated by Sports Minister

New Delhi, Aug 31 : India's star shuttlers Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, Sai Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth were felicitated by Sports Minister Vijay Goel on Thursday for their fine show at the recently concluded Badminton World Championship held at Glasgow.

Sindhu settled for silver after rrowly missing out to finish on top against Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in a nerve-wreaking one hour 50 minutes fil at the Emirates Are at Glasgow, UK, on Sunday. Sai bagged a hard earned bronze, going down to the 2016 Olympic bronze in an intense 74-minute battle on Saturday. The Indonesian and Australian Open Champion Srikanth ran out of his winning streak in the quarter-fils, losing against top seed Son Wan Ho of South Korea in 48 minutes on Friday.

Commenting on her fil match, Sindhu said: "The fil was tough and long, the last minute was anyone's game. She (Okuhara) played really well."

Sai spoke on the development of badminton in the country and said: "Our sport is developing in the country, it is getting popular. It is not difficult to produce champions due to the facilities."

Srikanth thanked his coach Pullela Gopichand and said: "I want to thank Gopi sir, got to learn a lot from the quarter-fil loss."

Coaches Vimal Kumar and Gopichand were also felicitated by the Sports Minister for playing a major role in development of the shuttlers. IANS