New Delhi: Tokyo Gold Medal Winner of the Indian Pramod Bhagat Paralympics on Thursday is called among the six shutters for ‘Male Jadminton Players this year’ by the World Sports Agency but no one is displayed in the award category that can afford to be bodied.
Conflating the world champion Bhagat, who has won a historic gold medal in Singles Singles class in Tokyo Paralympics in September, was also named together with Manoj Sarkar for the newly introduced ‘Badminton Pair of the Year’, with five other nominations.
Sarkar has pocketed a bronze in the Singles SL3 class of men at the Tokyo Olympics.
Bhagat 33 years old, who has contracted Polio when he was four years old, took sports after watching his neighbor play.
Initially, he competed against a capable player before entering the competitive badminton in 2006.
Bhagat is also the number one world champion and Asia at SL3.
In the SL3 classification, athletes with lower limb disorders compete.
There is no India in the nomination list in the capable category.
Danish Viktor Axelsen and Anders Anconsen, WNAG Yi Lyu and Japan Watanabe Yuta Japan are nominated for men (capable) this year.
Axelsen is a gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics.
The winner of the Gold Games Tokyo China in a woman’s single, Chen Yu Fei, Spanish Marin Carolina, Tai Tzu Ying Taipei and Yamaguchi Japanese Akane is a nominee for female players this year.
Because of the Pandemic Covid-19, the feasibility period was expanded to cover the 2020 and 2021 season (November 1, 2019 to 31 October 2021).
Winners will be announced during the Bali Leg of HSBC BWF World Tour in Indonesia in November-December.
Badminton World Federation (BWF) said the two new award categories were introduced – this year’s pairs and badminton pairs this year.
“The BWF Award commission also wants to specifically mention the extraordinary trips from Kevin Cordon Guatemala in four Olympic matches and his amazing show in the Tokyo 2020 which took him to the semifinals,” BWF said.