Bhagat, Sarkar credit coach for success

MUMBAI: Trailing 4-11 against Great Britain's Daniel Bathell in the second game of the Men's Singles SL3 final, the only thing going through Indian badminton player Pramod Bhagat's mind was not to allow the match to go into the third and decider game.

"I kept telling me that 'you can still make a comeback', 'you can still win it', 'you can still make a turnaround, and my coach (Gaurav Khanna) kept telling me 'it's going to turn around, it's going to happen soon'. His egging and encouragement helped me maintain my composure.

"I played very cautiously, weighed each shot, and kept executing my plan. I did not allow the pressure to get to me, did not allow my emotions to get the better of me. I kept pushing myself and that helped me win the game and the match," Bhagat added.

Manoj Sarkar, who won a bronze medal in the SL3 category, said he went out aggressively as he did not want to allow the pressure of playing the home star get to him.

"When this match began, my target was to win the first game match at any cost. Because there are three conditions: you are playing in Japan and against a player from Japan meant more pressure. The third thing which was positive for me was that I had already beaten the Japanese player many times. But then I took lead and eventually won the game. For the second game, I didn't want him to come back, I wanted to allow him even fewer points than the first, and I managed to do that," said Manoj. IANS

Also Read: Cabinet approves FDI proposal of 15K cr in Anchorage Infrastructure

Also Watch: