Score aside,deserved medal

But now Nehwal will head home and relax. Well,before that,she will raid her fridge and gobble all the chocolates that she’d denied herself as one of the lesser sacrifices demanded off her,while training for the biggest Games of her life. “I’ll go watch lots of movies,because I love movies,” she said just before boarding the podium’s third notch. “And I’ll finish all the chocolates; no matter if I put on weight for some time now,” she adds.

Any chocolate lover will tell you that the brown-chewey-thing has a very low hogging-threshold. So coach Gopichand needn’t worry too much. “This feels like me winning a medal for myself,” the coach uncharacteristically gushed,a dozen years after his own Olympic effort was cut short in a freak brain-snap of a match. But just like he had during his own victorious All England campaign,Gopichand had smartly devised a strategy for his ward that involved tiring out a Chinese rival with a suspected niggle. A 21-18,1-0 scoreline might not look very heroic but Nehwal had made the Chinese run around during that first game,testing her iffy knee,tipping her off the edge of pain,from where continuing became impossible.

Saina had promised her dad a final match,and didn’t speak to him after her loss to Yihan Wang,as disappointment and need for recovery consumed all her time. “But I’m not returning empty handed,” she said,content with being the first Indian shuttler to do so. It’s a strange satisfaction for the girl who never quite is satiated. “She’s been the first to make Olympic quarters,to get into Top 10,to win a Super Series final,to beat a Chinese Top 5. But she’s never thought it enough to be just the best in India,” her coach had said before the final. But even the taskmaster won’t deny her the chocolates and the movies and the occasional contentment,where bronze isn’t termed “settling for.”

Importantly,Nehwal’s now confident of giving the Chinese a few headaches. “I’m happy I’m a challenge to 6-7 of them. I know I’ll have to learn to play long rallies,to fight longer matches,” she says,looking at the longer haul. “There’s so many tournaments coming up,” she says,her kinetic force still running strong,even as the reality of the medal sinks in pretty fast. She’s neither pleased about how the medal came — the Chinese quitting — nor apologetic about it. “It could’ve been me twisting a knee there,but that’s how it works.”

Next is what?

She looks forward to having her junior PV Sindhu around and a few more toughies,so they could hunt in a pack. “We need more players to take them on,” she says,though she loves the ring to ‘Saina vs China’. On bronze medal day,quibbles don’t go away. Nehwal is yet to beat Yihan Wang. She’s never made a World Championship final. She’s yet to win a Super Series title in India to give her home fans some first-hand feeling of pride. She’s three spots away from No.1,and though in the year immediately after the Olympics,the Chinese tend to shuffle things around and ease their stranglehold on No.1,Nehwal will be required to keep her consistency levels as high as they were in the preceding four years.

Yet,on way to the bronze,Nehwal has battled illness (chicken pox in 2009),injury (the ankle since late 2010) and an itchy barney with her coach. She’s remained largely controversy-free,miles away from hubris and arrogance,and despite some glamorous photo-shoots and support from the Bollywood types,kept her focus on badminton. At any rate,she’s hung around to pounce on the chance,and grab her medal. And she wanted it bad enough.

Xin Wang was only grimacing clutching her knee court-side a point after the first set. Then Nehwal walked right onto the scene of the fussing officials and doctors across the net,standing there both hands on hips. Any last resistance Xin planned on offering was broken. A rare tear-dam burst,and the bronze was secured.