BHUBANESWAR: While PV Sindhu was crafting her way to create history in Indian badminton in a court of Basel stadium, Odisha’s para-shuttler Pramod Bhagat was making a parallel contribution in another court to make the nation proud. And Sunday turned a gold harvest as Sindhu emerged champion and Pramod won the world title for the fourth time in the para-badminton championship. It was also second laurel earned by Pramod who had already bagged doubles title in the BWF Para-Badminton World Championships for the second time.
Conceding the first set to second world ranker Daniel Bethell of England, Pramod culled all his experience and bounced back to win two successive sets to have an emphatic win. His tally read 6-21, 21-14, 21-5. The Atabira resident Pramod had earlier won the World Championship titles in Korea in 2009, Germany 2013 and England 2015. He also won a bronze medal in the last edition in Korea 2017.
In Saturday’s doubles match, Pramod paired with Manoj Sarkar defeated their country-mates Nitish Kumar and Tarun by 14-21,21-15,21- 16 to emerge champion. After winning the world single championship, Pramod was flooded with congratulatory messages. “You have done Odisha proud once again,” said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
“Congrats Pramod Bhagat for the double gold medals in the doubles and singles category. Great achievement, what a day for Indian Badminton,” tweeted Sports and Youth Services Department Director Vineel Krishna. Rajya Sabha member Dr Amar Patnaik, MP Pratap Sarangi, MP Dr Sambit Patra and former Rajasthan Chief minister Ashok Gehlot also congratulated Pramod. In 2019, Pramod has already won six international titles out of seven tournaments he has played.