Patna, Sep 5 (IANS): India's badminton player Pramod Bhagat, who won a gold medal in the Tokyo Paralympics in SL3 category, did not have enough money to buy even a badminton racket in early stages of his career.

Bhagat, a native of Bihar's Hajipur town in Vaishali district had natural talent in sports.

"He used to beat any person in the city during his childhood. When he was just five years old, he became a polio victim. As our financial state was not good and my sister Kishuni Devi and her husband Kailash Bhagat did not have a child, they adopted Pramod and took him to Bhubaneswar," said Rama Bhagat, the father of Pramod Bhagat.

"Initially we did not have money to buy a badminton racket for him. Then his uncle and aunt managed to buy a racket for him and he started training for the game," he added.

"Pramod completed his class 12 examination from Bhubaneswar followed by ITI. As he was continuously practicing badminton, he qualified for the Tokyo Paralympic games," he said.

Suresh Bhagat, the brother of Pramod Bhagat, said, "We are very happy with the efforts of Promod. He won the gold medal for our country and the state. At the same time, the sports infrastructure of Bihar is extremely bad. Hence, many talented players are unable to play in national events."

Pramod Bhagat managed to beat Daniel Bethell of England in the men's singles (SL3) final on Saturday and won the gold medal for India.