Para-Badminton International Championships 2022: Indian finish with 23 medals

MANAMA: Top para shuttlers Pramod Bhagat and Tarun Dhillon clinched two gold medals each as the Indian team ended with a rich haul of 23 medals including seven gold medals at the 1st Bahrain Para-Badminton International Championships 2022.

Promising doubles shuttler Manisha Ramdass also shot into the limelight with her twin gold medal show, while Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan (WS SH6) and Dhinagaran Pandurangan and Sivarajan Solaimalai (Doubles SH6) claimed the other top honours for India.

Pairing up with a new partner, Bhagat turned the colour of his mixed doubles SL3-SU5 silver medal from Brazil into gold this time. He and promising Manisha Ramdass got the better of Thailand's Siripong Teamarrom and Nipada Saensupa 21-14, 21-11 to take the gold.

The Tokyo 2020 Paralympic champion Bhagat then went on to take the men's singles SL3 gold after England's Daniel Bethell gave a walkover.

In the men's SL4 events, Dhillon, who missed out on a medal at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, first paired with Nitesh Kumar to pull off a convincing 21-13, 21-7 win over Thailand's Mongkhon Bunsun and Siripong Teamarrom in men's doubles SL3-Sl4 summit clash.

High in confidence, Dhillon took just 20 minutes to thump South Korea's Shin Kyung Hwan 21-9, 21-9 for the men's singles SL4 gold.

In women's events, Asian Youth Para Games champion Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan continued her good run of form to defeat England's Rachel Choong 21-15, 21-15.

Meanwhile, Mandeep Kaur, who pulled off an upset win in her semi-finals, had to settle for the second place after going down to Turkey's Halime Yildiz 21-5, 21-17 in the women's SL3 finals, the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) informed in a release on Sunday. IANS

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