"It's great to start our doubles partnership with gold medal"- Sukant Kadam on his doubles pairing with Pramod Bhagat

Ace Indian Paralympians Pramod Bhagat and Sukant Kadam recently teamed up for the first time in an international event. As expected, they finished atop the podium in the men’s doubles SL3-SL4 event at the Thailand Para Badminton International 2022 in Pattaya.

The Bhagat-Kadam duo humbled the Indonesian pair of Dwiyoko Dwiyoko and Fredy Setiawan in straight games, 21-18, 21-13, to clinch the gold medal.

Kadam, who settled for a silver medal in the men's singles category, is pleased with the doubles results. He said:

“It’s great to start our doubles partnership with a gold medal. It was an important tournament and we have trained together for some time before the Thailand 2022 Championships. And the result has been fruitful."

The Indian contingent returned with 17 medals including four gold medals, at the recently concluded 2022 Thailand Para Badminton International.

Indian para shuttlers have been performing consistently throughout the year, accumulating numerous medals in back-to-back events.

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Pramod Bhagat eyes better performance at World Championships in Tokyo

Pramod Bhagat went down fighting against his English arch-rival Daniel Bethell 13-21, 19-21, in the singles event. However, he bagged three medals at the Thailand tournament.

Bhagat expressed his satisfaction with the overall performance.

“I am happy with my performance throughout the tournament. I wish to congratulate Bethell on the win and now I will head back to the training ground and train harder for the World Championship in Tokyo.”

Bhagat defeated Bethell 21-14, 21-17 in the Paralympics final last year. However, ever since the Paralympics, there has been a neck-and-neck contest between him and the English shuttler. Both have squared off against each other, mostly during summit clashes in different tournaments lately.

Bhagat recently lost against Daniel Bethell in the summit clash in the SL-3 category of the 4-Nations Para Badminton International 2022 in Dublin.

Speaking about the upcoming events, Pramod said:

"I won three medal here in Thailand Para Badmintion International. Time to go back and prepare for World Championship in Tokyo Japan."

The Para Badminton World Championships 2022 is slated to take place in Tokyo, Japan, between November 1-6, 2022. This will be the 13th edition of the Championships.