Para Badminton World Championships 2024: Pramod Bhagat makes history with third straight world title

Suhas Yathiraj, Krishna Nagar also bagged gold

In what could be the longest finals in para badminton Padma Shri Pramod Bhagat defeated England’s Daniel Bethell in SL3 category to retain his gold at the NSDF Royal Beach Cliff BWF Para Badminton World Championships 2024 in Thailand.

This win breaks a lot of record for Pramod, not only makes him the first para-athlete to win 3 consecutive gold at the BWF Para Badminton World Championships but equals the record of Lin Dan’s 5 world Championships. He has won gold in 2009, 2015, 2019, 2022 and 2024. These 3 medals take his tally to 14 which includes 6 golds, 3 silvers, 5 bronze in all categories.

Pramod and Daniel Bethell’s rivalry is well known, and this match proved to be exactly that. The 1 hour 40-minute-long match was exhaustive, tight and could have gone either side. Pramod bhagat started the game really with 5 consecutive points and had a good lead, but Bethell came back strongly to win the first set 21-14.

The second set started off in the same fashion aggressively, but as the match progressed there were long rallies and both players couldn’t find opening, and their defense was spectacular. Somehow Pramod forced errors from Bethell’s side to win the second set 21 -15.

With the match poised evenly, the deciding set was going to be crucial, and Pramod once again changed his tactics to confuse Bethell which gave him the edge and secured the 21-14 winning his 3rd world championships in a row. Apart from the gold, Pramod also won bronze in Men’s Doubles with Sukant Kadam and also another bronze in Mixed Doubles with Manish Ramdass.

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Commenting on the same, Pramod Bhagat says, this win holds a very special place in my heart for various reasons. First being that I have managed to equal my idol Lin Dan’s record of 5 world championships and second being having been able to retain 3 consecutive world championships.”

He further added, “This match with Bethell would be my toughest both mentally and physically. I have not been playing well against Bethell past few months and this was my time to prove doubters wrong. The match was exhaustive and Bethell played brilliantly but somehow, I managed to pull out a win.”

On the other hand, Sukant Kadam also secured 2 bronze in singles and Men’s Doubles along with Pramod Bhagat.

In other results Suhas Yathiraj defeated Indonesia’s Fredy Setiawan to win gold in the SL4 category. He defeated him in straight sets 21-18 and 21-18. India’s Krishna Nagar of SL6 category also won the gold defeating China’s Lin Naili in a close contest with a score line of 22-20 and 22-20. Chirag Baretha and Raj Kumar went down fighting to Malaysia’s Muhammad Fareez Anuar and Cheah Liek Hou in Men’s Doubles SU 5 category.

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