India’s para-badminton shuttlers are assured of 12 medals at the ongoing BWF Para Badminton World Championships in Basel, Switzerland. There will be at least two all-Indian finals – women’s singles SL3 final and men’s doubles SL3-4 final – ensuring a minimum of two gold medals.
Three-time World Champion Parul Parmer continued her dazzling form to storm into the women’s singles SL3 final. Top seed Parmer, who will be playing her seventh final this season, will face compatriot Manasi Joshi, 2017 Worlds bronze medallist, in the final.
In the semi-finals, Parmer took just 20 minutes to defeat Turkish third seed Halime Yildiz 21-6, 21-16, while Joshi overcame Thailand’s Wandee Kamtam 21-13, 21-18 to make her first Worlds final.
Much like the women’s final, the men’s doubles SL3-4 final will be an all-India affair as Tarun and Nitesh Kumar face Pramod Bhagat and Manoj Sarkar.
Nitesh-Tarun came out with a brilliant show to shock the Indonesian experienced duo of Raekendi and Hary Susanto 23-21, 21-9 in the semi-finals, while Bhagat-Sarkar saw off the Indo-Thai pair of Umesh Vikram Kumar and Chawarat Kitichokwattana 21-15, 21-15.
As many as 22 medal events are contested in this Championships, while the Tokyo 2020 will have 14 medal events in the sport that will make its Paralympic debut next September.
The country’s men’s singles stars including World No 1 Pramod Bhagat and former silver medallist Tarun Dhillon cruised into the semi-finals on Saturday. Another SL3 star and former silver medallist Manoj Sarkar, along with Sukant Kadam and Krishna Nagar, joined them in the men’s singles semi-finals line-up which is expected to have more Indians as the matches proceed.
While Bhagat overcame fellow Indian Umesh Vikram Kumar 21-16, 21-12 in just 28 minutes in the men’s singles SL 3 quarter-finals, Dhillon defeated Korea’s Kyung Hwan Shin 21-11, 21-12 in another comfortable SL4 match.
Sarkar meanwhile advanced after surviving a second game scare from Vietnamese Trin Ah Tuan 21-10, 19-21, 21-15, before third seed Kadam saw off a strong challenge from compatriot Suhas Yathiraj 21-18, 21-19 in 36 minutes.
With Bhagat facing his compatriot and former silver medallist Sarkar next in men’s SL3, it means one Indian will make it to the finals.
In SL4 category, Kadam will face France’s top seed Lucas Mazur while Dhillon awaits Indonesian Feedy Setiawan, whom the Indian had beaten at the Indonesia 2018 Asian Para Games finals.
Later, Krishna Nagar took another step towards his goal defeating USA’s Miles Krajewski 21-16, 21-16 and will now face British World No. 1 Jack Shephard. It should be noted that Nagar had beaten Shephard all three times they met this year.
Kadam aims to break semi-final jinx
Kadam is keeping his fingers crossed and hoping to break the semi-final jinx in the biggest Para Badminton tournament of the year. However, his biggest challenge will be Mazur whom he has never been able to beat so far.
“It’s been my dream to play the final of the World Championships,” Kadam told Paralympic Committee of India.
“However, I know it will be tough with Lucas awaiting. He is a strong player and I have always lost to him, but I will stay positive and calm, and play my usual game,” added the 26-year-old from Pune, who was training at the Pullela Gopichand Academy before joining Para Badminton coach Gaurav Khanna.
Kadam has been a bronze medallist four times in six tournaments this year. But he wants to take the confidence from the fact that he had beaten his compatriot Yathiraj for the first time in an international match.
“It has always come down to mental pressure. But I have worked hard in the past few months and hopefully the results are showing. I will go out with confidence against Lucas.”
The semi-finals will be played later in the day, while the finals will be contested on Sunday.
With PTI Inputs
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