New Delhi, Aug 23 (IANS): Indian para-shuttler Sukant Kadam is hoping for double the medals in badminton in the upcoming Paris Paralympics than Tokyo with better preparation and strong representation in the sport. Sukant will make his Paralympic debut in Paris after missing the chance by a whisker in Tokyo. He will represent the country in the men's singles SL4 category along with Tokyo silver medallists Suhas Yathiraj and Tarun Dhillon. The 13-member badminton squad is the second largest in the Indian contingent after athletics (38).
"Preparation went really well and the feeling is good. I'm not thinking much about my other aspects and I'm so happy to be in the best shape of my body. Excited for my debut in Paris Paralympics and definitely looking forward to it," Sukant told IANS on Friday.
Talking about his journey from missing the Tokyo berth to finally making his Paralympic debut, the 31-year-old remains optimistic about the opportunity and hopes for a better result in the quadrennial event. "Setbacks happen with athletes but the Tokyo was a bit personal as it was my debut for para-badminton and I badly wanted to make my Paralympic debut there, but I missed by one rank to qualify. It was a bit challenging for me to get back and let it go. I had a lot of self-doubt but my family, and coach Mayank Gole also guided me well to come out of that situation," he said.
"It was emotional, and I took it very personally because I had put a lot of effort into that preparation. Everyone helped me and kept telling me that 'I have a lot of potential and I should go on and focus on the other opportunities'. After the failure, I got a lot of experience and started preparing for Paris and qualified for Paralympics. "I'm in a better mindset and better prepared for Paris. Tokyo was a bit early; the maturity and learning were yet to happen. I got to learn a lot after that," he added.
When asked about the major challenge in his category, Sukant said he is prepared to face any player in the tournament. "There are a lot of challenges domestic as well as international. Talking about home challenges, we push each other very hard every time we get the opportunity to play. We keep it very competitive. A lot of time we get easier against international players as we've faced major challenges already at home. The home favourite Lucas Mazur is also strong in our category and wherever we three of us talk, we discuss international athletes only, and how we can come up with counter solutions against them," Sukant said.
"We took that responsibility (to bring a medal) as our shuttlers were not able to win a medal in the Olympics this time. There were very close matches and we almost reached there but could not achieve it. We took that as a learning and it is our responsibility now to perform and stretch it a little bit further to get more and more medals in badminton. We will overcome that disappointment and come up with a better medal tally. Last time in Tokyo, we won four medals, this time we will come up with double medals. The kind of potential that the team has, all 13 athletes are medal prospects," he added.
When asked about the support he has received from the government and other organisations in his preparation for the Paralympics, Sukant said, "I got really good support, and I had a very good team working on me towards Paris. Everybody was an expert in their particular area, and I got a lot of help from them. Having your team helps you a lot to build and grow faster. It was only possible with the support of the Central government, PCI, OGQ and Maharashtra government. The amount of support I received being the TOPS athlete is very good and it will help us to reach the podium. The main motivation is that we got equal or maybe more support than abled athletes. It is our responsibility to achieve that result."