Looking up at the sky, Saina Nehwal let out a scream after grabbing the coveted gold, eight years after she had become the toast of the country with a maiden CWG title at 2010 Delhi Games.
Saina played with aggression and never let the intensity slip to outdo her younger compatriot P V Sindhu, who had taken over the mettle as India's premier star after her Olympic and world championship silver.
It was a moment she has been waiting for long ever since suffering a knee injury at the Rio Games. Her emotional reaction after the win was not as much about celebration as it was a release for all the pent up emotions that she endured in the last couple of years.
"It's a very emotional moment for me after the disappointing loss in Rio due to injury," said the second seeded Indian after her win.
In the run-up to the Games, Saina faced flak after she threatened to pullout if her father Harvir Singh is not allowed to stay with her in the village. She insisted his presence was important for her success and she proved her point when she beat Sindhu 21-18 23-21 in the finals today.
"It's a gift to my father and my mother, my country. I really term it as next to my Olympic medal and my world No.1 ranking. So I would keep it somewhere there," she added.
Injuries are an integral part of an athletes' life but the intra-articular injury to her right knee just days before Rio Olympics robbed Saina of a chance to win that coveted gold at the Olympics.
She had to undergo surgery and what came next was weeks and months of rehabilitation.
Saina, who had achieved the world no 1 ranking in 2015, now was reduced to a bystander. She lost valuable time and there were times when she even thought of giving up the game she loved so much all together.
But champions are made of different clay and Saina needed to embrace it wholeheartedly to heal and salvage any hope of a quick comeback. Within three months, she was back on the court to test her knee at the China Open and she also played in Hong Kong and Macau.
As time passed she healed a bit more and eventually claimed the Malaysia Masters last year but a major title was hard to come by despite the fact that she was making the quarters and semifinals consistently.
Then came a bronze at the Glasgow World Championship, which led to a reunion with long-time mentor and chief coach Pullela Gopichand, whom she had parted ways in 2014 after an consistent run.
The world championship final between Sindhu and Japan's Nozomi Okuhara turned out to be an epic contest that clocked 110 minutes and it made Saina realise that she has to step up her fitness level further if she has to achieve her absolute best.
But injuries continued to trouble her as she developed some ankle issue. She came back again to reach the finals of Indonesia Masters this year. However, results still continued to elude her in major events as a quarterfinal exit against USA's Beiwen Zhang was followed by a first-round ouster from All England.
This gold at Gold Coast will go a long way in healing all those scares of the last few years and hopefully pave the way for more titles before she walks into the sunset.
