Tanvi Patri won a silver medal in the women’s singles at the Youth Olympic Games in Dakar on Thursday, becoming the first Indian woman to win a badminton medal at the Games. The 15-year-old from Odisha lost the final to China’s Zhang Yi Xin 15-21, 21-13, 24-26 in a match that lasted 82 minutes.
Patri came back from 10-19 down in the deciding game and saved five match points before earning three gold medal points of her own, but Zhang held on to win 26-24. The final was played in Diamniadio, and the Chinese player is the reigning world junior champion. The match lasted one hour and 22 minutes.
The silver closed a campaign in which Tanvi Patri did not lose a match before the final. She came through the group stage as the third seed, then beat Thailand’s Kungkaew Kakanik 21-17, 21-13 in the quarter-finals in 39 minutes. That win made her the first Indian woman to reach a badminton semi-final at the Youth Olympic Games.
The semi-final was a harder test. Tanvi Patri beat Japan’s Yuzuno Watanabe, the second seed, 21-14, 11-21, 21-19 in 54 minutes, recovering after dropping the second game to close out the decider. The win guaranteed her at least a silver medal and put her into the final against Zhang.
Tanvi Patri and the road to the final
Patri trains at the Centre of Badminton Excellence in Bengaluru under coach Vimal Kumar, and she came into the Games as the reigning under-17 Asian champion. She comes from Odisha, and her rise through the junior ranks has been quick. She has also won the Asian under-15 title, and she was the third seed in Dakar. Her run through the group stage and the knockouts was built on steady play, and she dropped only one game before the final, in the semi-final against Watanabe.
The final tested her in a different way. Zhang took the first game 21-15, and Patri took the second 21-13 to level the match. The decider swung against her when Zhang opened up a 19-10 lead, and the match looked over. Tanvi Patri saved five match points and moved ahead to hold three gold medal points of her own, but Zhang took the last points to win 26-24.
Tanvi Patri and the first medal for Indian women
No Indian woman had won a badminton medal at the Youth Olympic Games before Tanvi Patri. HS Prannoy won silver in 2010 and Lakshya Sen won silver in 2018, and Sen also won mixed team gold in 2018. Patri is now the fourth Indian badminton medallist at the Youth Olympic Games, and the first woman among them. Aditya Joshi had also reached the semi-finals in an earlier edition, but no Indian woman had gone that far before.
The Badminton Association of India called the medal a big moment for the sport in the country, and the first women’s badminton medal at the Youth Olympics gives the junior programme a result to build on.
The medal came three weeks after a setback that could have ended her season. Tanvi Patri suffered food poisoning during the World Junior Championships in Cairo last month, and the illness raised doubts about her fitness for Dakar. She recovered in time to travel, and the silver medal was the answer to those doubts.
What comes next for Tanvi Patri
The silver medal puts her among the names to watch in Indian badminton. She is 15, and she has already won Asian titles at under-15 and under-17 level. The next step will be the senior circuit, where the gap in speed and physical strength is wider, and where her game will be tested against players with far more experience.
Patri left Dakar with a silver medal and a final that went to 26-24 in the decider. Her silver was one of four medals India had won at the Games, two silver and two bronze.