Para Badminton World Championships: Odia star Pramod Bhagat secures singles crown

Ace para-shuttler Pramod Bhagat successfully defended his singles title after defeating compatriot Nitish Kumar in the final of the BWF Para Badminton World Championships in Tokyo on Sunday.

World No.1 Pramod also secured silver medal with his partner Manoj Sarkar in the men’s doubles event.

In the men's singles SL3  category, Pramod pipped Nitesh 21-19 21-19 in 53 minutes to clinch the gold medal. The match was tightly contested but Pramod managed to hold his nerves and had an answer to everything that Nitesh threw at him.

In the men’s doubles, Pramod and his partner Manoj went down fighting to Indonesia’s Hikmat Ramdani and Ukun Rukaendi in three sets to settle for silver as the final score card read 21-14 18-21 13-21.

Paralympics champion Pramod who played his seventh career World Championships, has won a total of six gold, two silver and three bronze medals in singles and doubles categories at the event.  Moreover, except for the 2007 and 2017 World Championships, Pramod has reached the finals in all the editions.

Talking about his feat Pramod said, “I am very happy with my performance in singles. We could have done better in doubles. This win is huge for me as I have been working very hard.”