Para Badminton World Championships: Yathiraj, Pramod, Krishna win gold medals

Pattaya (Thailand), Feb 25 (PTI) India's Suhas Yathiraj, Pramod Bhagat and Krishna Nagar capped their impressive run by securing gold medals in men's singles SL4, SL3 and SH6 class respectively at the Para Badminton World Championship here on Sunday.

The world No 3 Yathiraj, a Paralymic silver medallist, outwitted Indonesia's Fredy Setiawan 21-18 21-18 in 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, egded 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 Paralympics.

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 women's doubles combination of Rachana Shaileshkumar and Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan settled for a silver each, after losing their respective final matches in SU5 and SH6 categories.

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