While India celebrated PV Sindhu’s victory at the World Badminton Championship, a para badminton player with an amputated leg also made the country proud.
A day before Sindhu scripted her historical win, Manasi Joshi on Saturday won her maiden gold medal at the Para Badminton World Championship held in Basel, Switzerland. She clinched the medal by defeating three-time world champion Parul Parmar in women’s singles. Manasi lost her leg in an accident in 2011. Despite having her left leg amputated, she started playing para badminton in 2015.
“I worked really hard for this one and I am super happy that all the sweat and hard work has paid off. This is my first gold at the World Champsionships,” Manasi wrote on her Facebook page.
India’s Para Badminton team also clinched 12 medals at the event. Pramod Bhagat and Manoj Sarkar won gold medals in the men’s doubles match.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi met PV Sindhu, Sukant Kadam, who won a bronze medal at the Para Badminton World Championship, requested the PM to meet them too.
Honorable @narendramodi sir,
We Para Badminton Athletes also won 12 medals in Para-Badminton World Championship and we also want your blessings.Request you to allow us to meet as we missed a chance aftr Asian Games@PramodBhagat83 @joshimanasi11 @manojshuttler @GauravParaCoach https://t.co/1zCqE91VAh— Sukant Kadam (@sukant9993) August 27, 2019
Following this, PM tweeted congratulating the winners.
Amending the policy for para-athletes to make them eligible for more cash awards, Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday handed over Rs 1.82 crore to the medallists.
Look at their happiness after winning medals for India. I’m extremely proud of our Para-Badminton players for their splendid performance at the World #ParaBadminton Championship by winning 12 medals! pic.twitter.com/YeJ0PoQbBd
— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) August 27, 2019
