Para-badminton World champion Joshi focusing on mixed doubles to qualify for 2020 Paralympics

Bolstered by the historic para-badminton World championships gold, Manasi Joshi has now turned her eyes on making the cut for next year’s Paralympics and said she is focussing on mixed doubles as SL3 category is not part of the Tokyo Games.

Joshi on Sunday clinched her first gold medal in the World Championship at Basel in Switzerland by defeating defending champion Parul Parmar 21-12, 21-7 in the women’s singles SL3 category.

However, the Indian is aware that she does not have a singles event at the next year’s Tokyo Paralympics, and hence is concentrating on the mixed doubles category to make it to the quadrennial event.

“I don’t have a singles event at the Paralympics, unfortunately. But I am training for the mixed doubles with my partner Rakesh Pandey and the current ranking is 13 and we need to be in the top six (to qualify). So we are working to make sure that our rankings gets better,” said Joshi told PTI.

Joshi, who trains three sessions a day at the Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad, feels shuttlers from Indonesia, Thailand, Japan and Germany will pose a challenge in their pursuit for a Paralympics qualification.

Joshi, who had lost her left leg in a road mishap in 2011, had previously won a bronze in the 2017 edition and described the current win as one of her biggest achievements.

“It is one of the biggest achievement as of now (for me). Winning a medal at the Para Badminton World Championship is quite a big deal because the event happens once in two years,” Joshi said.

“Previously the event happened in 2017 where I had come home with a bronze medal. (So by) converting the colour of the medal and making it directly gold, I have come a long way.”

Overall, India bagged 12 medals at the recently-concluded championship.

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