Odisha para-badminton star Pramod Bhagat continued his supremacy in the sport by winning the mens SL3 singles gold and SL3-SL4 doubles silver medal in the BWF Para Badminton World Championships, which was held in Tokyo, Japan from 1 to 6 November 2022.

Paralympic champion Bhagat retained the singles title, defeating compatriot Nitesh Kumar 21-19, 21-19 in final that lasted for 53 minutes. The match was tightly contested but Bhagat managed to hold his nerves and had an answer to everything that Nitesh threw at him.

But the Odisha ace failed to defend his doubles crown as he and his partner Manoj Sarkar went down fighting to Indonesian pair of Hikmat Ramdani and Ukun Rukaendi in the final 21-14, 18-21, 13-21.

Bhagat was playing his seventh World Championships starting from 2007. He has bagged a total of 11 medals in the World Championships so far. The 11 medals include six gold, two silver and three bronze.  Moreover, except for the 2007 and 2017 World Championships, Pramod has reached the finals in all the editions.

Talking about his performance in Tokyo, Bhagat said, “I am very happy with my performance in singles, in doubles we could have done better. This win is huge for me as I have been working very hard. This win tells me that I am moving in the right direction.”

Besides Bhagat, Deep Ranjan Bisoyee was anathoer Odisha shuttler to compete in the Tokyo World Championship 2022. But he failed to win any medal. Competing in mens SL3-SL4 doubles event Bisoyee and his partner Mohammad Arwaz Ansari crashed out at the league stage, losing two matches.
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PHOTO: Pramod Bhagat poses with BWF Para Badminton World Championship singles gold and doubles silver medal in Tokyo on 6 November 2022.