Wir suchen Dich! » as she gracefully climbed up the pod

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- It was fun while it lasted. Tennessee turned out to be more of a College Football Playoff summer fling than a relationship that would last until the committee picks four teams.The Vols showed college football another good time on Saturday at Kyle Field. But a team that commits seven turnovers and 12 penalties is not one you can take home to CFP chair Kirby Hocutt.With all of its mistakes, No. 9 Tennessee still came back from a 21-point deficit, still scored twice in the last 2:07 and still forced No. 8 Texas A&M into two overtimes. But when quarterback Joshua Dobbs threw his second pick, the seventh turnover, the Aggies escaped with a 45-38 victory.They made so many mistakes that Tennessee coach Butch Jones threw in an extra one. Very, very proud of our kids, Jones began. Just the fight in them, the will to win. But again, you cant have eight turnovers.Actually, seven proved to be too many, especially when the Vols coughed up three of them inside the Aggie 10: two during regulation and the game-ending pick.I mean the way that they played this year when their backs are against the wall is incredible ... and they did that once again, Texas A&M quarterback Trevor Knight said, so you got to give them credit for making it a ball game.The Aggies are 6-0 for the first time in head coach Kevin Sumlins five seasons, and that may serve as a salve for the aches the Vols provided. Texas A&M spent the first four games of the season looking as if it had solved the defensive woes that have plagued it throughout Sumlins five seasons.But Tennessee made Texas A&M depend on offense to win. And give credit to Knight. The Oklahoma transfer ran for three touchdowns, including the game-winner, and threw for two more, but completed only 17-of-34 passes and threw two interceptions. Knight throws the prettiest sideline fades you have ever seen but cant complete a pass in the flat. Hes like a chef who whips up a mouth-watering eggs Benedict and cant put a piece of bread in the toaster without burning it.The wizened heads of football believe that bounces even out over time. And lets face it -- the Vols looked like they had built up an overdraft on breaks this season: the overtime victory over Appalachian State; the comeback from 21 down against Florida; the miracle between the hedges last week.Name another team that has fumbled the ball 15 times and lost only three of them. And then came Saturday, when Tennessee had to pay their accounts receivable. The ledger of bounces had to be zeroed out. The Vols fumbled six times and lost five of them.The Vols dispute that all the breaks have gone their way. Five starters didnt start Saturday because of injuries. Three more left the game and didnt come back, including fifth-year senior defensive tackle Danny OBrien, who was strapped onto a board and taken off the field early in the fourth quarter. The initial report from the field said OBrien had movement in all four extremities and was being taken to a local hospital as a precaution. But he flew back to Knoxville on the team plane.Despite all of their mistakes, and all of their injuries, Tennessee spotted Texas A&M a 28-7 lead and delivered another remarkable performance. Dobbs led the offense to 684 yards. He threw for 398 yards and one touchdown and caught a touchdown pass from Jauan Jennings, the Hail Mary hero against Georgia. And yet nothing the offense did compared to the play that corner Malik Foreman made with just under 2:00 to play.With Texas A&M leading 35-28, tailback Trayveon Williams broke free from the Aggie 27 and raced down the left sideline. Williams, a freshman, rushed for 217 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries, but the 218th yard will stick with him for a long time.Williams carried the ball in his right arm, to the field, and Foreman took off after him. Foreman lunged inside the five, and with Williams at the 1, he punched the ball out of Williams arm with such force that the ball bounded straight out of the back of the end zone.Auburn fans still swoon at the name of Antoine Carter, the Tiger who punched the ball out of Crimson Tide tailback Mark Ingrams grasp in the 2010 Iron Bowl, sparking the Tigers comeback from 24 points down to win 28-27. Foremans play should rank ahead of Carter for the distance he ran. The turnover precipitated the Vols moving 80 yards for the tying touchdown in six plays and 1:08.Texas A&M came right back down the field and set up kicker Daniel LaCamera to make a 38-yard game-winner with eight seconds left. When Jones called two timeouts to ice him and LaCamera badly hooked his kick, it looked as if the Vols had found one more week of magic.You could not script everything that happened, Sumlin said. I said it last week. This team is not about panicking. ... There have been instances where things like that start sliding, and you cant get it back.An Aggie defense that had been on the field for 94 plays in regulation kept the Vols out of the end zone in overtime. LaCamera, just a few minutes after missing the game winner, came back onto the field and tied the game at the end of the first overtime. Knight scored from 1 yard out, and when Armani Watts made a diving pick of Dobbs at the Aggie 6, Tennessees season of storybook comebacks came to a halt.Minutes after the game, the Aggies lined up and faced their fans, each side arm in arm, singing the Aggie War Hymn. The swaying, braying sea of maroon in the east stands had several orange stripes. 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That the arena you will walk into will be crammed with people wanting to feel that feeling? That millions upon millions will be watching on TV back home wanting to feel that feeling? Even Abhinav Bindra - the only guy to have done what you are attempting to - wants to re-feel that feeling, urging you to end his loneliness.Headline writers are imagining the grandeur of their front pages. News stations are interviewing your mum, dad, sister, uncle, aunt - maybe even your tailor if they could - in a cataclysm of breathless coverage. Websites are digging up childhood pictures of you. Comics are making nervous jokes.They all want to feel that feeling.Yet, what you need to do is win a badminton match. Against the best player in the world. To win it, you must gallop and sprint. Smash and drop. Twist and tumble. Retrieve and attack. You must disengage from the occasion and commit to the discipline of your craft. You are 21. You must do this. The simple, everyday things on a not so simple, not every day.I am seated next to a Spanish journalist. We shake hands before the players step out and wish each other good luck. Neither of us mean it, of course.Two years ago, this journalist tells me, no one in Spain knew about Carolina Marin. Today, she is a household name. A couple of world championships and a stride right up to the top of the rankings will do that for you. An Olympic gold medal will send her fame to stratospheric levels back home.The arena needs no warming up as they enter. Lin Dan, the two time defending Olympic champion, has been waylaid in a thrilling mens singles semifinal by bitter rival Lee Chong Wei. Chen Long has coasted past Viktor Axelsen in the other one. The appetizers have been consumed. Delicious as they were, it is the main course we are here for.Sindhu saunters in, clad in a bright yellow outfit with orange shoes to complete a riot of radiance. When she gazelles on the court, her ponytail swerves in perfect harmony. This is a lithe, supple athlete that would not be out of a place at a high jump competition.Marin, in contrast, is a raging bull. Left-handed and expressive, she possesses the fiercest screech in badminton, possibly in all sport. It is Sharapovian in decibel level, Azarenkan in pitch.The two players fist-pump differently as well. Marin does an upwards rumble on hers, yelping along front on, gaze firmly focused forwards. Sindhu prefers it left-fisted and downwards with a double up and down, head lowered to urge herself on, with a Come onnnnn to accompany.The Spanish fans form pockets of core strength. In the stand facing the court and on the left. They combust with glee more often as the early exchanges favour Marin. 7-4. 10-6.Sindhu is making an iffy start to this. Shuttles sail wide or fail to clear the net. Tweeters and pundits are spouting advice everywhere but all Sindhu wants to hear is Gopichand. He settles her with the assurance of a knowing mentor. She must stay the course. Stay strong. Play like she can. Play like she has been.17-15. 17-16. 19-17. 19-18. 19-19.The cacophony in the arena is deafening. In the 400m sprint for women earlier on at these Olympics, Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas edged out Allyson Felix of the USA by the narrowest of margins, diving across the finish line at the very last second.Sindhu pulls off a similar heist here. Trailing for most of this race, she scrambles up a gasp of last-minute effort. On game point, they exchange a rampage of shots before Marin is flummoxed at the net as one sails over her head. She retrieves in desperation but can only meet the shuttle with the frame of her racquet.The only time Sindhu leads in the game is at 20-19. It is the only window of opportunity she needs. It is the first time Marin has lost a game all tournament.My Spanish journalist companion is bemused. She shuffles uncomfortably in her chair and shrugs her shoulders.Ca-Ro-Leena , Ca-Ro-Leena, beseech the Spanish fans.India. Indeeya, go the Indians.Marins playing style is demonstrably bossy. When she first won the world championships as a 21-year old in 2014, she stunned the established order with her gumption and ferocity. A year later, she repeated the trick having refined that method.In game two, suitably chastened at having conceded the first one, she starts to inflict damage. Sindhu struggles to get a rread on the direction of Marins whippy forehand, especially from the back of the court.dddddddddddd One shot goes back across from where it came, spanked from over her right shoulder. Another is met on a straighter line and arrives on Sindhus backhand, spicily at that.The Indian is reacting and keeps the points going but Marin, you sense, is a step ahead.There is a tinge of desperation as Sindhu rushes shots. One clammers into the net, the other sails wide. Gopichand periodically assures here from courtside, but the scoreboard rattles along.A Sharapovian shriek accompanies a Samprasian leap as Marin launches angrily into a shuttle to claim an 11-2 lead. 12-4. 13-5. The chair umpire repeatedly chastises Marin as she takes unscheduled breaks to towel down or grab a quick drink of water. This is another Marin patent to get under the skin of her rival. If there is an advantage to be claimed, she will claim it.Now Marin is deft and damaging at the same time.Aided by her wingspan, Sindhu is retrieving smartly but momentum - that hard to explain but easy-to-feel thing in sport - is with the Spaniard. To earn game point, Marin contorts her wrist to command the shuttle past the net, but only just. It is a heavenly flick.Seven minutes short of the one hour mark, it is confirmed that the Olympic champion will be determined by the lady to pocket the next 21 points before the other. My Spanish journalist colleague has settled back into her chair. I am standing now. She offers a toothy grin. We both know Marin is in the ascendancy.Sindhu has the heart and no shortage of skill, but Marin has the greater nuance. While playing badminton, the human body must move unlike any other sport. It must bend, leap, sprint, contort, skip sideways and forwards, sometimes all in the same rally. Marin functions with a robotic understanding of this process; Sindhu is still a work in progress. Rapid progress yes, but progress nevertheless.Sindhu concedes a few easy points to get us going in the decider and is soon trailing 9-5. The tweeting tornado is now at its peak. Trending records are being set. A ballistic arena is thirsting for more drama. The Spanish fans have seen this before, it is when their girl switches into beast mode. Sindhu though, is not inclined to play dead. Not yet. 6-9. 7-9. 8-9. 10-10.Marin has threatened to pull away decisively for much of this contest, only for the Indian to hang on by her coattails and stay rooted in the match. If she can beat three higher ranked players on her way to this final, surely she can claim a fourth scalp?Sindhu believes, but Marin resists any temptation to temper her tactical approach, fraught as it is with risk. She is searching for kills and mounts on the shuttle with stunning force as we head to a crescendo. The average rally in this game lasts 11 seconds and nine strokes. The corresponding figures for the first two games are 9/7 & 8/6.In essence, there is no quarter being asked for and none is on offer in any case. We tick past the hour mark. If I did not care as much as I did I would be be enjoying this. In this moment though, it is agonising.16-14.Sindhu has her back towards me in this game. Her glances back towards Gopichand are laced with concern. Marin is swooping over the shuttle now, sensing this moment must be seized or else it may all come to nothing. She masterfully swivels around court, and launches into a trademark smash that Sindhu can only feebly dump into the net.For one final time, the world number one has made a decisive sprint towards gold. It ends in a flicker of time with both women lying flat on court. They converge at the net, the victor in tears, the vanquished carrying a congratulatory smile. They embrace as friends and champions.One day, when the story of this contest is told, it will slave itself to the enormity of the occasion. Of what was on the line, what was won, and what was lost.Perhaps, as she gracefully climbed up the podium to collect her silver medal, Sindhu felt a twinge of regret at having fallen short. Perhaps when she was besieged by an eager media corps later, she gained a full understanding of what this moment entailed. Perhaps when her phone was returned to her after two months in Gopichands capture, she checked her Twitter page and rolled over in disbelief.In the heat of that battle though, all PV Sindhu cared about was slicing the backhand right, placing the drop shot neatly and creaming the smash with all power at her command. She did that stuff quite well, it was just that Marin did it a shade better.We fell short maybe to feel that feeling we came to feel, but over these past few days we saw a player of rare sparkle shine through.And boy, she can play. ' ' '