Manama: India’s Pramod Bhagat captured the men’s SL3 gold medal with a commanding straight-game win over Muhammad Al Imran of Indonesia at the BWF Para World Championships here Saturday.
The 37-year-old Bhagat outclassed his opponent 21-12, 21-18 in the final to claim his fourth consecutive singles gold at the world championships and his sixth overall world title in the category.
The victory underlines Bhagat’s sustained dominance in the SL3 division, which refers to a classification for standing players with significant lower limb impairment.
Bhagat, who developed polio when he was five, had secured world championship singles gold medals in 2009, 2015, 2019, 2022 and 2024.
Following Saturday’s win, he surpassed China’s legendary Lin Dan, who won five men’s singles world titles in able-bodied badminton, making Bhagat the most decorated singles champion across world championship history in the sport.
The triumph also marked a significant redemption for Bhagat, who served an 18-month suspension for violating the Badminton World Federation (BWF) anti-doping whereabouts clause, which forced him to miss the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Bhagat later combined with Sukant Kadam to claim the men’s doubles SL3-SL4 title, defeating fellow Indians J. Dilli and N. Sivakumar 21-19, 21-16 in the final. The top-seeded Indian pair controlled key phases of the summit clash to complete a golden double for Bhagat.
In other results, N. Sivakumar finished runner-up in the men’s singles SL4 category after losing to top seed Lucas Mazur of France 12-21, 21-19, 14-21 in the final.
India’s M. Ramadass, the top seed in women’s singles SU5, settled for silver following an 11-21, 11-21 defeat to China’s Yang Qiu Xia in the title clash.
Top seed N. Sumathy Sivan also finished runner-up in the women’s singles SH6 category after going down 14-21, 21-12, 17-21 to China’s Li Feng in a hard-fought three-game final.
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