What’s the story?
The latest updated rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) brought highly encouraging news for para-sports in the country. Pune based para-badminton player Sukant Kadam achieved a career-best singles ranking of two in the SL4 class. Sukant was earlier ranked one position below at third place.
Sukant, who was born in Sangli. trains with Olympian Nikhil Kanetkar at the Nikhil Kanetkar Badminton Academy (NKBA) in Balewadi, Pune.
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Kanetkar was quoted in Hindustan Times as saying, “To be ranked second in the world is a huge feat. It makes our academy proud of the fact that we are doing the right thing. Sukant is a focused player and going forward, we will be looking into getting more exposure for him.”
In case you didn’t know...
This achievement makes Sukant part of a select group of para-badminton players from India to be in the top two of the BWF rankings of any class. Parul Dalsukhbhai Parmar (world number one in the SL3 Women) and Manoj Sarkar (world number three in the SL3 Men class) are the only others.
The heart of the matter
Sukant’s phenomenal rise can be explained by his consistent performances in the para-badminton circuit. So far, Sukant has managed to win a singles medal in all five tournaments that he has participated in Spain, Uganda, Turkey, Ireland and Thailand.
In fact, it was his back-to-back bronze medals in Thailand and Ireland recently that propelled him to the second spot in the rankings.
What’s Next?
This news will do a lot to boost Sukant’s confidence who is hoping to do well at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Sukant said that there is still a long road ahead for him and a lot of hard work is still required.
Author’s Take
Indian badminton has enjoyed a golden period in the last decade, with two Olympic medals, numerous title wins and a large number of players in the top 100. It is thus heartening to know, that at the same time, para-badminton players too are making the country proud and teaching us all a lesson in combating adversity with their performances.
A world number two rank is no mean achievement and speaks volumes about the kind of hard-work that went into this, both on part of the player and coaches. Here’s hoping that Sukant’s skills and dedication coupled with the support of the administration and fans alike can help him strike gold in 2020!
