Yathiraj, Pramod and Krishna win gold medals at Para Badminton World Championships

India’s Suhas Yathiraj, Pramod Bhagat, and Krishna Nagar capped their impressive run by securing gold medals in the men’s singles SL4, SL3, and SH6 class respectively, at the Para Badminton World Championship on Sunday.

The world No. 3 Yathiraj, a Paralympic silver medalist, outwitted Indonesia’s Fredy Setiawan 21-18 in the SL4 final for her maiden world title.

“Gold it is, Happy and proud to be World Champion,” tweeted the 40-year-old Yathiraj, who hails from Karnataka and is an IAS officer of the 2007 batch of Uttar Pradesh cadre.

He is currently the Secretary and Director General of Youth Welfare and Prantiya Rakshak Dal in the UP government.

Bhagat, who won a gold and two bronze at the Para Asian Games in China, edged out England’s Daniel Bethell 14-21 21-15 21-14 in SL3 final.

The 35-year-old Bhagat, a Paralymic gold medallist, thus completed a hat-trick of crowns after Stoke Mandeville in 2015 and Basel in 2019. He also won a gold medal at 2022 Tokyo edition.

In SH6 category, Krishna Nagar, a Paralympic gold medal winner, also emerged champion after prevailing 22-20 22-20 over China’s Lin Naili in another men’s singles final.

In women’singles SU5, Manisha Ramadass signed off with a silver medal after losing 16-21 16-21 to China’s Yang Qiu Xia in the final.

The men’s doubles pair of Chirag Baretha and Raj Kumar and the women’s doubles combination of Rachana Shaileshkumar and Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan settled for a silver each, after losing their respective final matches in the SU5 and SH6 categories.

It is a draw of 16 in the singles event, while the doubles is a draw of 8 pairs.