Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday congratulated India's para Bminton contingent for ir performance at BWF Para Bminton World Championships which took place between August 20 and 25. India's team won an outstanding 12 medals at World Championships, including three golds. Pramod Bhagat won two gold medals, competing in men's singles SL 3 category as well as in doubles' category. In latter, he partnered with Maj Sarkar. Manasi Joshi, meanwhile, won her maiden gold in SL3 finals.

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Prime Minister's Greetings

Earlier, Para Athlete Sukant Kam, who won Bronze medal in men's singles SL4 category h requested Prime Minister to meet successful para-bminton contingent, especially since y missed out on opportunity post Asian Games. Prime Minister said "130 crore Indians are extremely proud of Indian Para Bminton contingent, which has brought home 12 medals at BWF World Championships 2019. Congratulations to entire team, whose success is extremely gldening and motivating. Each of se players is remarkable!"

Apart from three gold medals, India's total tally included four silvers and five bronze medals. Manasi Joshi, who is also trained by Pullela Gopichand, bagged third gold medal after she defeated Parul Parmar 21-12, 21-7. In a tweet after tournament, Manasi said she was "stoked to have Gold". She also congratulated PV Sindhu after she won her maiden gold medal at World Championships and also called her "GOAT", an abbreviation for Greatest of All Time.

Speaking to Paralympic Committee of India, Manasi said, “I have trained extremely hard, training three sessions a day. focus was on my fitness so I also lost some weight and gained more muscle. I spent more time in gym, working six sessions a week. I h also put lot of effort to improve my strokes and played matches every day with players at Gopichand Acemy. I believe improvements are alrey showing”. 

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Rewards for athletes

Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju met athletes on Tuesday and said that Ministry has decided to reward athletes with an amount up to Rs 20 lakhs per athlete. As per recently amended guidelines, "which are organised by International Paralympic Committee as well as in events that are t organised by IPC, but organised by respective International Sports Federation and recognized by International Olympic Committee, will be eligible for cash awards from government". A new rule also stated that medal winners at international events will be rewarded on day y return and t at an annual ceremony to facilitate athletes.