Tanvi Patri, the 16-year-old prodigy who is seen as a major emerging talent in Indian badminton, vindicated the decision to select her in a 2-member badminton squad for the Youth Olympics at Dakar, Senegal, by ensuring a medal on Wednesday. Tanvi defeated Thailand’s Kungkaew Kakanik, 21-17, 21-13 to reach semifinals and ensure a medal.

The Odiya girl training at the Centre of Badminton Excellence in Bangalore , is a reigning U17 Asian champion, and will play Yazuno Watanabe to advance to the gold/silver match.

Tanvi had earlier beaten Sara Gonzalez of Mexico 21-8, 21-12 and Smrithi Adepu of Australia 21-4, 21-12 to get into a medal round.

HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen and Aditya Joshi are former Youth Olympics medallists.

Tanvi travelled to China where she lived while her father was posted there in an IT job.…