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 ?
- (a)Carolina Marin
- (b)Tai Tzu Ying
- (c)Nozomi Okuhara
- (d)None of these
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.
- (a)Carolina Marin — 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 — 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)None of these — 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.
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.
Anchor the question to the exam date: December 2019, so 'first ever gold' points at the August 2019 championship in Basel. The retrieval hook is the rivalry rather than the tournament — Sindhu's three world finals ran 2017, 2018, 2019, and the opponents were Okuhara, Marin and Okuhara again. The 2017 final against Okuhara is one of the longest and most famous matches in the women's game and is what most students actually remember; the paper-setter has counted on that memory being attached to the wrong year. If you can place any one of the three finals correctly, the elimination does the rest.
- The 2019 BWF World Championships were held at the St. Jakobshalle, 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 won by any Indian at the BWF World Championships.
- Sindhu had lost the world-championship finals of 2017 and 2018; the 2017 final was also against Okuhara.
- Carolina Marin of Spain beat Sindhu in the Rio 2016 Olympic final and in the 2018 World Championships final.
- Present-day note for a 2026 reader: Sindhu went on to win bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (held in 2021), adding to her Rio 2016 silver.
- Attaching the famous 2017 Sindhu-Okuhara final to 2019. Both finals were against Okuhara, but Sindhu lost the first and won the second.
- Reading the question as an Olympic one. Sindhu's Olympic medals are a Rio 2016 silver and a Tokyo bronze; the gold in this stem is a world-championship gold.
- Assuming the world No. 1 must be the world champion. Tai Tzu Ying held the top ranking for long stretches without a world title, which is what makes option (b) plausible.
UPPSC asks the sports item as a single fact from the year before the exam — who beat whom, which medal, which venue — and often as a match-the-player-with-the-medal list; UPSC has moved almost entirely away from sports current affairs, so the transferable value here is in the general-awareness habit, not in the badminton itself.
Who among the following won the men’s singles title at the World Badminton Championship in the year 2001?
- (a) Gopichand
- (b) Hendrawan
- (c) Ji Xin Peng
- (d) Peter Gade
Answer(b) Hendrawan
The same tournament, the same question design, seventeen years earlier — and the same trap, since Pullela Gopichand is placed first as bait for candidates who remember his 2001 All England title and file it under the wrong event.
Which one of the following is NOT correctly matched ? (Name of Player) — (Medal Won in Tokyo Olympic 2020)
- (a) P. V. Sindhu — Bronze Medal
- (b) Bajrang Punia — Silver Medal
- (c) Mirabai Chanu — Silver Medal
- (d) Neeraj Chopra — Gold Medal
Answer(b) Bajrang Punia — Silver Medal
Sindhu again, two papers later — this time in UPPSC's other favourite format, the athlete-to-medal match list. Between the two questions you are expected to hold both her Basel gold and her Tokyo bronze.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The 2019 BWF World Championships, at which P. V. Sindhu won India's first gold at the event, were held in which city?
- (a)Glasgow
- (b)Basel
- (c)Nanjing
- (d)Copenhagen
Answer(b) Basel — the championships were held at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, from 19 to 25 August 2019.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following statements about the BWF World Championships is correct?
- (a)It is held once every four years, in the same year as the Olympic Games
- (b)It is held annually except in Olympic years, and both losing semi-finalists are awarded bronze
- (c)It is a team event contested between national federations
- (d)It is organised by the International Olympic Committee
Answer(b) It is held annually except in Olympic years, and both losing semi-finalists are awarded bronze — the event is run by the Badminton World Federation and holds no bronze play-off, which is why two bronze medals are given in each discipline.