NEW DELHI: PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth have been announced winners in the badminton category at the Times of India Sports Awards (TOISA) 2021. The fifth edition of the TOISA was held in the capital on Friday.

The evaluation period for TOISA 2021 was from January 1 to December 31, 2021. All achievements during this time period were considered by the jury.

This time the esteemed TOISA jury included the likes of cricket all-rounder and member of the 1983 World Cup winning team Madan Lal, Olympic medal winning shooter Gagan Narang, former hockey captain and Haryana sports minister Sandeep Singh, veteran Indian athlete Anju Bobby George who was the first Indian athlete to win an athletics World Championships medal, Paralympic Games silver medallist Deepa Malik and Olympic medal winning boxer Vijender Singh.

Rio Olympics silver-medallist Sindhu led from the front with a bronze medal at Tokyo Olympics and a silver at the season-ending World Tour Final. Sindhu started off well as she finished runners-up at the 2021 Swiss Open in March before coronavirus forced the suspension of three Olympic qualifiers.
Already qualified for Tokyo Games, Sindhu then sealed her place among the greatest by becoming the first Indian woman to win back-to-back medals in Olympics.

After a two-month break, she registered three semi-final finishes on her return at French Open, Indonesia Masters and Indonesia Open. Sindhu then sparkled at the season-ending World Tour Finals, by winning a silver medal.

Her form raised hopes of a successful defence of her World Championships gold but it was not the case as Sindhu returned empty-handed from the prestigious event for the first time since 2017.

Former World No. 1 shuttler Srikanth became the first Indian male ever to reach the final of the prestigious BWF World Championships in 2021. Though he had to settle for a silver medal after losing to Singapore's Loh Kean Yew in the summit clash at Huelva, Spain, his achievement was a historic one.

The medal in the World Championships made sure that Srikanth ended the year on a high after what was a disappointing season, in which he had failed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics too.

The World Championships was the only final Srikanth played in 2021, while losing in the semi-final stages at the Indonesia Masters, Hylo Open and Swiss Open.

In the men's category, Srikanth pipped Lakshya Sen, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty for the award while in the women's circuit, Sindhu had Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly as her fellow nominees.