Are you are well known about the sport called ‘Badminton’ and its First World Champions who belongs from India?
If yes, then alright, but if you’re not, then don’t worry we will explain you all about it in the article.
So, here we start. It is said by the peoples that badminton was originated and invented in the town of Pune, India. And because of its invention in Pune, it was named as ‘Poona’. Badminton is basically played with the help of a shuttlecock and a racket. And with the passage of time badminton now is one of the most popular game after cricket and soccer, and played by peoples across the world with ease. And now let’s discuss about the First World Badminton Champion. You must know that he belongs from our country ‘India’. Not only him but we’ve got many other gems, who have won the World Badminton Championship. To know about these gems that our country gave us, you’ve to go through the post given below.
Table of Contents
First Male World Badminton Champion from India.
Prakash Padukone (Father of Badminton)
Prakash Padukon is the first male player to accquire a medal at World Badminton Championship, which was held in 1983. He is one of the Indian former badminton player, who is also known as the ‘Father of Badminton’. In 1980, he was ranked as the world’s number one badminton player also won the ‘All England Open Badminton Championship’ same year. He took the responsibility of the Indian players by becoming the coach of Indian National Badminton team, from 1993 -1996. Olympic Gold Quest (a foundation that promotes Olympic sports in India) appointed Padukone as its chairman. In 1991,when he took retirement from his game, he became the chairman of Badminton Association of India.
Personal Information
- Born on: 10 June, 1955
- Place: Bangalore, Mysore, India
- Height: 6 ft 1 in
- Weight: 75kg
- Father: Ramesh Padukone (Remained the Secretary of Mysore Badminton Association)
- Mother: Ahilya Padukone
- Wife: Ujjala Padukone (Travel agent)
- Childrens: Deepika Padukone (Actress), Anisha Padukone (Golfer)
Achievements
Prakash Padukone started his badminton sessions from a very young age and scored many achievements. Here we’ll tell you about some of his top achievements. Year 1983, he achieved 3rd position in Denmark, at world badminton championship. In 1978, he aligned 1st position in the Commonwealth games, Which were held in Canada, after which he also, participated in the Asian Games, held in 1974, 1986 in which he ranked 3rd. And finally in 1981, he won the World cup Singles, held at Kuala Lumpur.
Awards
- 1972- Arjuna Award
- 1982- Padma Shri
- 2014- Outstanding Achievement Award
- 2018- BAI Lifetime Award
Some lesser Known facts about Prakash Padukone
- He got his surname ‘Padukone’ after his village name, which is located near Kundapura, Udupi district, Karnataka.
- He used to play badminton since his childhood with his father. In 1964, he also won the National Junior Championship.
- BAI, awarded him with Lifetime Achievement Award, in 2018.
- The second best ever written biography on a badminton player was ‘Touch Play’ by Dev.S. Sukumar.
- In Swedish open Padukone defeated his idol Ruby Hartono.
- During 1980-1985, he won 15 titles.
- Awarded in London with ‘Evening of Champions’ in 1979, at the Royal Albert Hall.
- Won ‘National Senior Championship Title’ one after another from 1971-1979.
First Female World Badminton Champion from India
Saina Nehwal
Saina Nehwal is an Indian Professional badminton player. She has listed her name in the list of world’s number one female badminton player. She had won international titles approximately 24 times. which also includes her Super series Titles. After Prakash Padukone, Sania is the one who has ranked in the Badminton World Championship from India.
Saina has listed her top scores and carry- out several milestones in badminton for our country. Till to date Sania is the only badminton player to win a medal in each BWF Championship. She is the youngest player from Asia and also the first Indian player to win a 4- star tournament. In 2014, Pullela Gopichand became her first coach and started helping Sania in her training at Gopichand Badminton Academy later she took admission in the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, in Bangalore and took training under U.Vimal Kumar. And in 2017 she took a decision to returned back to the Gopichand Academy and continue with her sessions over there.
Personal Information
- Born on: 17 March, 1990
- Born at: Hisar, Haryana, India
- Height: 5 ft 5 in
- Weight: 65 kg
- Handedness: Right
- Mother: Usha Nehwal
- Father: Harvir Singh Nehwal (Scientist)
- Husband: Parupalli Kashyap
Achievements
Saina Nehwal is the first female badminton player to achieve victory at Olympic and bag a medal. She is also well known as the first Indian to reach at the finals of BWF (Badminton World Federation). Rather than this she took part in the Commonwealth Games in 2010, and won a gold medal. In 2012, she won a bronze medal in women’s singles, which were held at London Olympics. Silver Medal at World Championship which took place at Jakarta in 2015. In 2017, Saina Nehwal got 3rd position in the World Badminton Championship. After winning a gold medal in Commonwealth games, 2019, she was ranked as the number one female badminton player.
Awards
- 2009: Arjuna Award
- 2010: Awarded with Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, and Padma Shri
- 2015: Big Star Most Entertaining Sportsperson of the Year
- 2016: Padma Bhushan Award
- 2009: CNN-IBN Indian of the year in sports.
Some lesser known facts about Saina Nehwal
- Saina Nehwal’s birth place is in Haryana, but now her residential address is in Hyderabad.
- Even her parents used to play badminton from Haryana, and reached at the state level.
- Saina Nehwal started playing badminton as a child, at the age of 8.
- She took admission in Gopichand Badminton Academy and began with her training.
- Saina is also a brown belt holder in ‘Karate’.
- As a gift she received a BMW, from Sachin Tendulkar, after winning a gold medal at Olympics in 2012.
- She launched her autobiography ‘Playing to win: My Life On and Off Court. was out’ she mentioned all her plus and minus points and all the struggle she went through.
- She had to face many injuries during 2016-2017, due to which she had to miss her most of the tournaments.
- On 29 January 2020, she entered politics. And took a decision to join Bharatiya Janta Party.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed reading the post above. These two amazing players are ranked as number one badminton player in the world. But with the passage of time we can see many new young talented players in every field, that we’ll explain in some other article.