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Krishna Nagar bagged the top honour in the men’s badminton singles (Class SH6) event and provided India its fifth gold in the Tokyo Paralympics. Nagar was phenomenal in his final event as he sealed the game 2-1 against Hong Kong’s Chu Man Kai. At instances, he looked rusty as he made quite a few unforced errors but he didn’t let that have a long-term effect. Nagar won the game 21-17, 16-21, 21-17 in a match lasting a total of 43 minutes.
With this win, Krishna Nagar got himself listed in the history books. He is only the second shuttler, after Pramod Bhagat, to win a gold medal at the Paralympic Games. Nagar looked in a good touch in this edition of the Paralympics. Before cruising over Chu Man Kai in the final, he had blown away Great Britain's Krysten Coombs in the semi-final.
Let us look at some other details about the gold medalist:
Name: Krishna Nagar
Age: 22 years
Date of Birth: 12 January 1999
Height: 135 cm (4 ft 5 in approx.)
Handedness: Left
Hails from: Rajasthan
Profession: Para-shuttler
Coach: Gaurav Khanna
Highest Ranking: 2
Current Ranking: 2
Achievements
Krishna Nagar won the bronze medal in the singles event (SS6) at the 2018 Para Asian Games in Indonesia.
Krishna Nagar won the bronze medal in singles event (SS6) and the silver medal in the doubles event alongside Raja Magotra at the 2019 Para Badminton World Championships in Basel, Switzerland.
In the 2020 Summer Paralympics, Krishna won the gold medal in the singles event (Class SH6).
Early Life
Nagar was diagnosed with dwarfism at the age of four. Often taunted for his short height, Krishna was introduced to badminton by his father, who himself used to play softball at the national level. Nagar used to play many sports, including badminton, to increase his height. However, he eventually faced up to the reality and took up para-badminton in 2017.
He announced himself at the international stage in 2018 when he won the bronze medal at the Asian Games. Nagar didn't not look back after that and kept winning medals for his father who once dreamt of winning an olympic medal.