Deaflympics 2021: Indian badminton squad wins gold in Mixed Team event

The Indian badminton team left no stones unturned and with a heroic effort bagged gold in the Mixed Team badminton event, defeating Japan in the finals, 3-1 at the ongoing Deaflympics 2021 at Caxias do Sul, Brazil.

Although India failed to start on a dominant note and lost the first match-up to Japan in the Mixed Doubles where the pair of Abhinav Sharma and Aaditya Yadav went down in straight sets to Masaaki Numakura and Chihiro Numakura, 16-21, 11-21 in a matter of 33 minutes, they quickly made up for the loss in the remaining matches.

Into the Women's Singles, Jerlin Jayaratchangan dug deep against Mai Yakabe and played a tight three-setter before she could register the first victory for India in the gold medal clash, 17-21, 21-12, 21-14 in 35 minutes.

In the Men's Singles, Abhinav Sharma locked horns with Kohei Kakiuchi and put up a dominant show to defeat his Japanese opponent, 21-16, 21-11 in just 30 minutes.

Carrying the winning momentum forward in the Women's Doubles, the pair of Jerlin Jayaratchangan and Aaditya Yadav defeated Manami Nagahara and Chihiro Numakura quite comfortably, 21-15, 21-15 and clinched the gold medal for India - the first one this year from the badminton event.

With this triumphant show, India is looking dominant in the badminton sphere at the Deaflympics and more medals will be expected from this bunch once the individual events begin on 6th May 2022.