World Para-Badminton C'ships: Suhas, Krishna, Pramod clinch gold; India secures 18 medals

Suhas Yathiraj, Krishna Nagar and Pramod Bhagat clinched the gold medal at the World Para-Badminton Championships in Pattaya, Thailand, on Sunday. With three gold, four silver and 11 bronze, India ended the championships with 18 medals.

Suhas defeated Fredy Setiawan of Indonesia in straight games to clinch the gold medal in the Side Lower (SL) 4 final, while Krishna got the better of Lin Naili of China in an edge-of-the-seat thriller. Krishna defeated Naili 22-20, 22-20 in the SH6 final.

This was Krishna's maiden gold medal and first in men's singles at the World Championships.

Playing in the final of the World Championships first time, Suhas, ranked third in the world, handed world no. 2 Fredy 21-18, 21-18 defeat to clinch the gold medal.

In the semifinal, Suhas, an IAS officer of the 2007 batch of Uttar Pradesh cadre, stunned world no. 1 Lucas Mazur of France - who is also the reigning world and Paralympics champion - to storm into his maiden final at the World Championships.

The 40-year-old is currently the Secretary and Director General of Youth Welfare and Prantiya Rakshak Dal in the Uttar Pradesh government.

Pramod, meanwhile, defending his gold medal, came from behind to beat Daniel Bethell 14-21, 21-15, 21-14. This was his sixth World Championships and ninth medal overall.

However, Manisha Ramadass could not defend her Side Upper (SU) 5 title in the final on Sunday, losing to Yang Qiu Xia of China 16-21, 16-21.

Indian pairings, however, failed to win gold as SU5 pair Chirag Baretha and Raj Kumar, SH6 duo of Rachana Patel and Nithya Sre, and SL3-SU5 pairing of Manasi Joshi and Thulasimathi Murugesan settled for the silver medals.