Hyderabad, Aug 1 (IANS): National badminton coach Pullela Gopichand has congratulated star shuttler P.V. Sindhu on winning the bronze medal at Tokyo Olympics.

"Congrats to our awesome Sindhu on her 2nd successive Olympics medal," Gopichand said in a statement after Sindhu clinched the bronze by defeating He Bingjiao of China 21-13, 21-15.

"While it is all due to the hard work by her and the team of coaches and support staff, I also want to express my gratitude to the support of Sports Ministry, Indian Government, SAI and BAI," said the former All England champion.

"Also thank Govt of Telangana for allowing the stadium for the players and great to see badminton win medals in 3 successive games," the coach added.

Sindhu went down fighting against against Tai Tzu of Chinese Taipei in the semifinal on Saturday. However, putting behind the defeat, she came back strongly to win the bronze.

With this she became the first Indian woman athlete to win two medals at Olympics.

She had won silver at Rio Olympics in 2016 after losing to Spain's Carolina Marin in the final.

Sindhu began her training under Gopichand, who has been the guiding force in Indian badminton for last several years and played a key role in her success. In 2019, she started training Kim Ji Hyun of South Korea. Her current coach is Park Tae Sang, also of South Korea.

The shuttler recently moved out of Gopichand Academy and underwent the training under Park Tae Sang at Indoor Stadium Gachibowli.