Pramod Bhagat of India defeated England’s Daniel Bethell in the SL3 category to retain his gold at the NSDF Royal Beach Cliff BWF Para Badminton World Championships in Thailand.
This win breaks a lot of records for Pramod, not only makes him the first para-athlete to win three consecutive gold at the BWF Para Badminton World Championships but also equals the record of Lin Dan’s five World Championships. He has won gold in 2009, 2015, 2019, 2022 and 2024.
Pramod’s three medals take his tally to 14, which includes six golds, three silver and five bronze in all categories.
The 1 hour 40-minute long match was exhaustive, tight and could have gone either side. Pramod started the game with five consecutive points and had a good lead, but Bethell came back strongly to win the first set 21-14.
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The second set started in the same fashion aggressively, but as the match progressed, there were long rallies, and both players couldn’t find an opening, and their defence was spectacular. Somehow, Pramod forced errors from Bethell’s side to win the second set 21 -15.
With the match poised evenly, the deciding set was going to be crucial, and Pramod once again changed his tactics to confuse Bethell, which gave him the edge and secured the 21-14 winning his third championship in a row. Apart from the gold, Pramod also won bronze in men’s doubles with Sukant Kadam and another bronze in mixed doubles with Manish Ramdass.
Commenting on the same, Pramod Bhagat said that this win holds a very special place in his heart for various reasons. “First being that I have managed to equal my idol Lin Dan’s record of five world championships and second being having been able to retain three consecutive world championships,” he said.
“This match with Bethell would be my toughest both mentally and physically. I have not been playing well against Bethell the past few months, and this was my time to prove doubters wrong. The match was exhaustive, and Bethell played brilliantly, but somehow, I managed to pull out a win,” Pramod explained.
Sukant Kadam of India won two bronze in singles and men’s doubles along with Pramod.
In other results, Suhas Yathiraj defeated Indonesia’s Fredy Setiawan to win gold in the SL4 category with a 21-18, 21-18 win.
India’s Krishna Nagar also won the gold defeating China’s Lin Naili in a close contest with a score line of 22-20 and 22-20 in the SL6 category. Chirag Baretha and Raj Kumar went down fighting to Malaysia’s Muhammad Fareez Anuar and Cheah Liek Hou in the Men’s Doubles SU 5 category.
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