There was blood on the floor – Lakshya Sen narrates heroic tale of his fight in the Olympics bronze medal play-offs

Indian shuttler, Lakshya Sen, suffered a meltdown after his defeat against Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in the bronze medal clash at the Paris Games on Monday. Sen looked indomitable at the start and as a reward of his belligerence, he clinched the first set by 21-13.

Much to his surprise, a spirited return from Jia that saw the Malaysian clinch nine points on the bounce startled Lakshya and he fell behind in the long race, eventually losing the next two sets by 16-21 and 11-21 to finish fourth in the latest edition of the Summer Games.

However, one may have seen that Lakshya was playing with a taped elbow and needed medical intervention quite a few times. Talking after the game, Sen explained what exactly went on in the center and the pain that he had to go through to finish the game.

Sen said, “I had my chances in the second set and could have definitely done better. But credit to him, he played a really good game. I think at the moment I'm just not able to think right now. I came well prepared for this match as well. It has been quite a tough week overall. But yeah, the fatigue kept on building. But I mean, I was ready to give my 100 percent in this match."

Shedding some light on his injury, Sen said, “In between the points there was blood on the floor so they had to wipe it. Sometimes, I was losing the momentum of just having a break in the game and then coming again and trying to refocus on the match. But overall the hand is okay.”

Despite the crash, Sen seemed to impress the world with his overall display in the Summer Games and at the end of his semi-final clash received a massive world of acclaim from the iconic Viktor Axelsen.