Tokyo Paralympics: ‘We are going to get five medals, including three golds’ – Indian para badminton coach Gaurav Khanna confident of a stellar show in Tokyo


Tokyo Paralympics: ‘We are going to get five medals, including three golds’ – Indian para badminton coach Gaurav Khanna confident of a stellar show in Tokyo

Indian para badminton contingent for Tokyo Paralympic Games

The Indian para badminton team got a warm send-off at the Gaurav Khanna Excellia Badminton Academy ahead of the Tokyo Paralympics. Para badminton will be making its debut at the Olympic Games and India will be featuring in three events as the favourites for a gold medal.

Dhronacharya award-winning coach Gaurav Khanna, the Indian national para-badminton coach, is confident of a stellar show on debut for the Indian para shuttlers. Khanna is expecting as many as five medals from his disciples. World No.1 Pramod Bhagat (SL3), Krishna Nagar (SH6) and Tarun Dhillon (SL4) are India’s brightest medal prospects.

We have a very strong team representing the country at the Paralympics. Out of the six best players of the world selected for the Paralympics, two are Indians. Two from SL3 and two from SL4 category in men’s singles,” Khanna said during the send-off ceremony.

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So I am pretty sure our players will bring medals and a realistic expectation will be a minimum of five medals. We are going to get five medals, including three golds, for the country.

“I’m confident of my performance,” Indian para badminton player Palak

Palak Kohli, Indian para badminton player
Palak

The experienced Parul Parmar and the young Palak Kohli (SL3-SU5) will be featuring in the women’s doubles category. The team also comprises Suhas L. Yathiraj (SL4) and Manoj Sarkar (SL3), who qualified after the Badminton World Federation (BWF) granted two bipartite quotas to the country. Palak is confident of her preparations as he gears up for her Paralympic debut.

There will be pressure in the Paralympics as I will play three events in a day. But I have prepared well under my coach. So my complete focus has been on my preparation and I’m confident of my performance,” the 18-year-old said.

The send-off event was organised at the Gaurav Khanna Excellia Badminton academy with Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) president Deepa Malik, joint secretary of Badminton Association of India (BAI) Prabhakar Rao and Indian Olympic Association Treasurer Anandeswar Pandey joining virtually. The Tokyo Paralympic Games kick off on 24th August.

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