New Delhi: The star doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty ended a 58-year-old drought on Sunday and became the first Indian to win a gold medal after Dinesh Khanna at the Asia Badminton Championships in Dubai.
The 2022 World Championships bronze medallists made a stunning comeback to beat the Malaysian pair of Ong Yu Sin and Teo E Yi 21-16, 17-21, 19-21 in a thrilling final.
Khanna is the only Indian to win a gold medal at the continental championship, having achieved the feat in 1965 by defeating Thailand’s Sangob Ratnussorn in the men’s singles final in Lucknow.
India’s previous best performance in men’s doubles at the Asian Championships was in 1971 in the form of a bronze-medal by Dipu Ghosh and Raman Ghosh.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tweet wrote, “Proud of @satwiksairaj and @Shettychirag04 for scripting history by becoming the first Indian Men’s Doubles pair to win the Badminton Asia Championships Title. Congratulations to them and wishing them the very best for their future endeavours.”