City shuttler shines in Dubai Para Badminton C’ship

Lucknow: At least 10 players have reached the finals while 10 others won bronze medals in various categories of the 3rd Fazza-Dubai Para Badminton International-2021 even as India continued to lead the tally on Saturday with 20 medals.

The event which started on March 27 will conclude on Sunday (April 4). One of the players, Abu Hubaida, who has qualified for men's doubles (WH1-WH2) finals with Premkumar Ale (Pune), hails from Lucknow. The team is being led by Gaurav Khanna, a 45-year-old Railway Protection Force (RPF) cop at Lucknow division of Northern Railway.

Khanna, a Dronacharya award recipient, who is also the coach of India’s national para badminton team, said: “Though we had to miss a lot in terms of practice due to coronavirus pandemic but I am happy to see the splendid performance of our players. At least 32 countries are participating in the event and we top the medal tally.” “Three of my players — Palak Kohli, Premkumar Ale and Pramod Bhagat — who did their practice in Lucknow are about to bag three medals in the event. Six of my players have attained the eligibility criteria for Tokyo Paralympics,” Khanna said.

Finalists: Pramod Bhagat (Men's Singles SL3), Nitesh Kumar (Men's Singles SL3), Manasi Joshi (Women's Singles SL3), Sukant Kadam (Men's Singles SL4), Palak Kohli (Women's Singles SU5), Krishna Nagar & Raja Magotra (Men's Doubles SH6), Premkumar Ale & Abu Hubaida (Men's Doubles WH1-WH2), Premkumar Ale (Mixed Doubles WH1-WH2), Pramod Bhagat & Manoj Sarkar (Men's Doubles SL3-SL4), Sukant Kadam & Nitesh Kumar (Men's Doubles SL3-SL4). Bronze Medalists: Palak Kohli & Parul Parmar (Women's Doubles SL3-SU5), Arati Patil & Manasi Joshi (Women's Doubles SL3-SU5), Palak Kohli & Pramod Bhagat (Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5), Prem Ale - (Men's Singles WH1), Chirag Baretha & Rahul Verma - (Men's Doubles SU5), Manoj Sarkar (Men's singles SL3), Parul Parmar (Women's Singles SL3), Arwaz Ansari & Deep Ranajn (Men's Doubles SL3+SL4), Charanjeet Kaur (Women's Singles SL3), Girish Sharma (Mixed Doubles WH1-WH2).