Whom did P.V. Sindhu beat to win the first ever Gold Medal for India in Women's Single Badminton Championship in the final match ?

Question

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Correct — C, Nozomi Okuhara. At the 2019 BWF World Championships, held at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland from 19 to 25 August 2019, P. V. Sindhu beat Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in the women's singles final on 25 August 2019. It was the first gold medal ever won by an Indian at the BWF World Championships in any event, and it completed a long personal arc for Sindhu: she had reached the world final in 2017 and again in 2018 and lost both, and the 2017 final was against this same opponent. The 'first ever gold' in the stem is what makes the question answerable — Sindhu already had world-championship silver and bronze medals before 2019, so only the Basel final fits.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Carolina Marin of Spain is one of Sindhu's defining rivals — she beat Sindhu in the Rio 2016 Olympic final and again in the 2018 World Championships final. That is exactly why she is here: a candidate who remembers 'Sindhu lost a world final to Marin' can easily mis-file it as the year Sindhu won. Marin was not Sindhu's opponent in the 2019 Basel final.  (b) Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei was a long-standing world No. 1 and a frequent opponent of Sindhu on the circuit, but she did not play Sindhu in the 2019 World Championships final. Ranking dominance and a world title are different things, and this option trades on confusing the two.  (d) Wrong because option (c) is right — Nozomi Okuhara is named in the list, and she is the player Sindhu beat in the Basel final of 25 August 2019.

Concept: The BWF World Championships is badminton's world title event, run by the Badminton World Federation, and it is distinct from both the Olympic tournament and the season-long BWF World Tour. It is held every year except in Olympic years, when it is not staged. No bronze play-off is held — both losing semi-finalists take bronze — which is why several Indian players hold world-championship bronze medals. Sindhu's Basel win was India's first gold at the event; India's earlier medals there, including Sindhu's own and those of other Indian players, were silver and bronze.

State PCS 2019 Q79 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2019 Q79 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer