Saina Nehwal returns to grand welcome in Hyderabad

Hyderabad didn't hold back on Tuesday while showering love on favourite daughter Saina Nehwal.

To call it a rousing reception would be an understatement. Naturally, it left the bronze-medal winning badmintonplayer completely overwhelmed.

Saina first took an open top bus ride from the Indira Gandhi International airport to Gachibowli, with hundreds of enthusiastic fans dancing away to drum beats or jostling to catch a glimpse of the star player.

From Gachibowli, Saina shifted to the chariot, which was driven straight to the Pullela Gopichand Academy.

The scale of the celebrations left Saina little time to interact with fans or the media, though she did find time in between a string of felicitation ceremonies.

Saina said she was thrilled to watch her coach celebrate like a small boy after she won bronze in London.

"Gopi sir looks very composed but I was surprised when I saw him jumping for joy after my win. I was pleasantly shocked. He always used to tell me, 'Saina, I was not able to win an Olympic medal, but you can win it for me'.

"Also, I cannot forget the contributions of my father. This victory could not have been possible without his efforts. He sacrificed a lot for me," Saina said, adding that she never thought she would stand on the podium at an Olympic Games.

Coach Gopi, on his part, recalled how Saina wept inconsolably after losing at the Denmark Open last year.

"She told me, 'Bhaiya, it's not happening, you have to do something.' I comforted her, telling her that I would put in my best effort for the Olympics. From then on, for the next eight months I never left the city when Saina was training. That incident in Denmark motivated us a lot," Gopi said.

...DELHI TOO GETS A GLIMPSE OF STAR, NOT HER MEDAL

While Hyderabad pulled out all the stops to leave Saina excited, emotional and totally exhausted, the welcoming ceremonies had begun early in the morning in Delhi, where the players stopped over briefly on the way back.

For a while, the chaotic reception seemed to rattle her, but soon she was taking it in her stride. The Olympic medal conspicuous by its absence around her neck, it was clear she was saving the big moment for beloved Hyderabad.

In Delhi, her accompanying contingent - men's singles quarterfinalist P Kashyap, coaches P Gopichand and Edwin Irwain - were in for a minor jolt when they emerged from the arrival lounge.

A small but determined crowd waited to fete her, complete with an aarti platter, flowers, professional dhol players, the works.

The jostle at the exit gates was a small-scale one but it drove them right back in. "We didn't want it this way," muttered Gopichand, but soon order was restored and she put up a second show. The medal was still absent.

Those gathered included a sleepy-eyed media team, airport ground staff during a change of shift, hanging on, waiting to catch a glimpse of 'Sania Mirza', who they thought was arriving.

Maybe, even with an Olympic medal to her name now, that is one thing that she may have to always live with, but for the moment, this was the least of the happy problems that bothered Saina at the moment.

All the clamour for the medal winner left Kashyap with a few moments to reflect on his own impressive run in one of the strongest men's singles field in recent memory.

"It surprised me too," a candid Kashyap said of his good form at London, but "I guess the training regimen of the past few months was instantly paying off."

"Such a run augurs well for the future in the sense, that the top field recognizes you now and are looking to beat you now. Your own expectations too rise with that, I guess," said the 25-year-old.

Back inside, coach Gopichand hoped that the medal would create awareness about the sport. On a personal front however, he admitted that motivation for the coachward duo would be hard to come by.

"There's a kind of void at the moment, now, immediately after the medal win. We have to reset out targets, find new ones," he said.

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