Badminton gamers Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy are photographed after profitable the boys’s doubles gold medal on the Badminton Asia Championships 2023 in Dubai on April 30, 2023. Photograph Credit score: PTI
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy nonetheless couldn’t imagine it when he and companion Chirag Shetty scripted historical past by turning into the primary Indian pair to win the doubles gold on the Asian Championships right here on Sunday.
The 2022 World Championships bronze medalist pair broke a 58-year-old drought, turning into the primary Indian since Dinesh Khanna to turn out to be champions on the continental championships.
Satwik and Chirag beat Malaysian pair of Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yee 16-21, 21-17, 21-19 within the remaining to register an emphatic win on the continental championships.
“Personally, it’ll take me a very long time to imagine that we’re the Asian champions,” Satwik mentioned throughout the press convention.
“I nonetheless cannot imagine we’re Thomas Cup champions. It’s our dream to win and lift the flag excessive for India. Good increase for us as we go into the Olympic qualification interval.” Khanna is the one Indian to say a gold medal, having achieved the feat by defeating Thailand’s Sangob Ratnusorn within the males’s singles remaining in Lucknow in 1965.
India’s earlier greatest efficiency in males’s doubles on the Asia Championships was a bronze medal end by Dipu Ghosh and Raman Ghosh in 1971.
Satwik and Chirag confirmed super composure as they by no means gave up after shedding the primary sport and misplaced the second and third video games 7-13 and 11-15 to clinch India’s first gold in doubles.
“I feel right this moment we did not play, the gang performed with us. We had a nasty begin within the first and half of the second sport, however we did not hand over,” he mentioned.
“We saved our nerves, we all know how you can play these conditions. So, we have been ready for a very good rhythm after which take our possibilities. We have been calm within the second and third video games. It felt like taking part in in Hyderabad. Keep tuned. The group was wonderful.” It was the second title of the season for Satwik and Chirag, who remained the perfect shuttlers for the nation on show this season.
Chirag mentioned: “After 13-Eight we tried to play just a little smarter. The serve was one thing that labored rather well for us, it took them without warning. We have been very calm defending as properly. ” Other than the Asian Championship title, Satwik and Chirag additionally gained 5 profession titles on the 2022 Commonwealth Video games and the BWF World Tour.