The Badminton Association of India on Monday announced a cash reward of Rs Five lakh each for both Sankar Muthusamy and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty for their performances at the BWF World Junior Championships and French Open 750 World Tour event respectively.
“This is a great moment of pride for all of us to see both our junior as well as senior shuttlers ensuring podium finishes defeating top class players and becoming the flag bearers of pride and glory,” said BAI president Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma while announcing the prize money.
The doubles duo of Satwik and Chirag become the first Indian doubles pair to win a BWF Super 750 tournament when it defeated Chinese Taipei’s Lu Ching Yao & Yang Po Han to clinch the French Open title. They had also defeated the World Number 1 pair of Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi in the quarter-final.
Former Junior World number 1 Sankar Muthusamy won silver at the World Junior Championships after he went down in the summit clash against Chinese Taipei’s Kuo kuan Lin.
He became the ninth Indian shuttler to bag a medal and the fourth Indian to win a silver in this event.
“The boys in the past one week have played some fearless badminton and we are really glad to see India finishing among the top countries at such global events. This will also be a huge inspiration for the younger generations,” said BAI Secretary Sanjay Mishra.
The doubles duo of Chirag Shetty and Satwik have had a dream year as they started the 2022 with a gold medal at the India Open followed by the historic Thomas Cup and Commonwealth Games victory and winning a bronze medal at the World Championships.
