The winner of the Tokyo Paralympic Games in India, Pramod Bhagat, was named among the six Men’s Para-Badminton Awards pitchers of the Year by the world sports body on Thursday, but none of his compatriots were featured in the disability award categories. .
Defending world champion Bhagat, who won a historic gold medal in the SL3 men’s singles class at the Tokyo Paralympic Games in September, was also nominated alongside Manoj Sarkar for the recently introduced Para-Badminton couple of the year, with five others. nominees.
Sarkar won bronze in the SL3 men’s singles class at the Tokyo Olympics.
Bhagat, 33, who contracted polio at age four, started playing the sport after watching his neighbors play. He initially competed against healthy players before joining competitive badminton in 2006.
Bhagat is also the current world number one and Asian champion in SL3. In the SL3 classification, athletes with lower limb disabilities compete.
There were no Indians on the list of nominees in the disabled categories.
Danish players Viktor Axelsen and Anders Antonsen, Chinese Wnag Yi Lyu and Japanese Yuta Watanabe were nominated as Male Player of the Year (without disabilities).
Axelsen was the gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics.
The women’s individual gold at the Tokyo Games in China, Chen Yu Fei, Spain’s Carolina Marin, Taiwanese Tai Tzu Ying and Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi were nominated as Player of the Year.
Due to COVID-19, the eligibility period has been extended to cover the 2020 and 2021 seasons (November 1, 2019 to October 31, 2021).
Winners will be announced during the Bali leg of the HSBC BWF World Tour in Indonesia in November-December.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) said two new award categories have been introduced: couples of the year and couples of the year for badminton.
“The BWF Awards Committee also wishes to make a special mention of Kevin Cordon’s extraordinary journey from Guatemala through four Olympic Games and his impressive performances at Tokyo 2020, which led him to the semi-finals,” said the BWF.
