Pramod Bhagat has snatched gold medal for India. With that he becomes the first badminton player to help the country fetch its first gold medal at Paralympics.
This Saturday, India’s Pramod Bhagat created a history by winning the Men’s Singles SL3 event badminton gold medal. The match was held against Daniell Bethell representing Great Britain at the Tokyo Paralympics.
It's official Pramod Bhagat wins first ever GOLD for India in the first ever edition of #ParaBadminton at #Paralympics pic.twitter.com/J4zgwwMmu2
— Doordarshan Sports (@ddsportschannel) September 4, 2021
With this emphatic win in Paralympics Games, the country is proud to have secured a medal in badminton which is of course a great achievement.
In another match, Manoj Sarkar of India gave a tough fight to Japan’s Daisuke Fujihara and managed to clinch the Bronze medal in the same category.
If we talk about the medal’s tally at the Paralympics, India is proud to have won as many as 17 medals comprising 4 gold, 7 silver and 6 bronze medals.
The chances of Bhagat winning his match looked bright when he quickly made a comeback in the game at the time of falling 8 points short in his second match. This is when he made a great comeback and wrapped up his match 21-14, 21-17.
Bhagat is a 33 year old guy from Bhubaneswar. He often remains in contention for a bronze medal, especially in the category of mixed doubles match of SL3-SU5 class.
As per the update, Bhagat along with his partner Palak Kohli is expected to square off against the dangerous looking Japanese pair of Akiko Sugino and Daisuke Fujihara in the bronze medal play off on Sunday.
Earlier, it was reported that the pair had lost their semifinal match 3-21 15-21 to Indonesia’s Leani Ratri Oktila and Hary Susanto.
After Sarkar and Bhagat created a history by winning their individual matches, PM Modi congratulated them of their emphatic win at the Paralympics.
While addressing them, the Prime Minister expressed his satisfaction and excitement that Indian sports persons are excelling in different sport events.
Pramod Bhagat has won the hearts of the entire nation. He is a Champion, whose success will motivate millions. He showed remarkable resilience & determination. Congratulations to him for winning the Gold in Badminton. Best wishes to him for his future endeavours. @PramodBhagat83
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 4, 2021
The PM also looked excited to see the spirits of confidence among Indian players.
There are some stories related to Bhagat that surfaced after he managed to excel at the Tokyo Paralympics.
When he was 4 years of age, he contacted polio. But he decided to pick up sports as his career option after watching his neighbor play.
At the start of his sports career, he had to compete with able-bodied players before finally competing into para badminton in 2006.
Within a short span of time, he emerged as s=one of the best para shutters and won over 45 international medals on his name.
Out of these medals, 4 include world championship gold medals. He has also won a gold and a bronze medal in the 2018 held Asian Para Games.
After achieving so much in his sports career, he also started giving training to others and became a coach. But he decided to take a break in 2019 to focus on Tokyo Paralympics qualification.
It was in 2019 when he received the most prestigious Arjuna Award along with Biju Patnaik Award for showing his excellence in sports in the country.
Manoj does it for 🇮🇳! #IND's Manoj Sarkar bags the #Bronze medal in #ParaBadminton Men's Singles SL3, getting the better of #JPN's Daisuke Fujihara. 🥉
For the second time today, 2⃣ Indians make up the podium places. Wow. #Tokyo2020 #Paralympics pic.twitter.com/CrW8NMBC3v
— #Tokyo2020 for India (@Tokyo2020hi) September 4, 2021
The latest reports say that Krishna Nagar and Suhas Yathiraj have managed to sail into the men’s singles finals of SH6 class and SL4 class respectively.
