Tokyo: Reigning world champion P V Sindhu's hopes of securing India's first-ever Olympic gold in badminton came crashing down as she slumped to a straight-game defeat against world no.1 Tai Tzu Ying of Chinese Taipei in the women's singles semifinals here on Saturday.

The 26-year-old silver-medallist from the Rio Games, however, remained in the hunt for a bronze medal and will be competing against China's He Bing Jiao in the third place play-off at Musashino Forest Plaza on Sunday.

One of the most consistent players, who claimed medals in all big-ticket events in the last five years, Sindhu couldn't counter Tai Tzu's deception with her aggressive game, going down 18-21 12-21 here.

This is Sindhu's 14th loss to the Taiwanese second seed in 19 meetings, having also lost to her in the last three face-offs.

On Friday, Sindhu, seeded sixth, had beaten Japanese world no.5 Akane Yamaguchi in the quarterfinals.

Earlier, men's singles player B Sai Praneeth and the men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy had failed to qualify for the knockout stage.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Jabalpur (PTI): The body of a 5-year-old boy was recovered from the Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur district on Sunday morning, taking the death toll in the cruise boat tragedy to 12, while search continued for one missing person, police said.

The boat, around 20 years old and operated by the state tourism department, capsized during a storm on Thursday evening.

The body of Mayuram (5) has been fished out of the dam. Search is underway for Kamraj (aged around 50), an employee of the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria, Bargi police station house officer (SHO) Neelesh Dohare told PTI.

More than 200 rescuers, including around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and local divers, were searching for the man 40-50 feet deep in the water in a radius of 5 km, according to police.

Of the 41 identified passengers on board the ill-fated vessel, 28 were rescued after the incident, police earlier said.

The CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the boat, while the identities of 41 passengers have been confirmed so far, they said.

The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the tragedy and dismissed three crew members. It also banned the operation of similar vessels in the state.