Tokyo Paralympics champion shuttler says good show at Nationals will motivate him for international meets
NEW DELHI: A couple of days ago, Tokyo Paralympics champion Krishna Nagar posted a cryptic message on his twitter timeline. It read: "We're happy, free, confused and lonely at the same time."
The tweet was accompanied by a picture of Krishna looking lost. The expression offered a peek into the badminton player's mind. His mother passed away after an unfortunate incident in Jaipur last month, hours before he was to receive his Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award from President Ram Nath Kovind at an in-person ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan here.
The national para-badminton championships in Bhubaneswar beckoned where Krishna was to defend his titles in all of his classification categories. However, the sudden demise of his mother left the Tokyo gold medallist - in the men's singles SH6 - heartbroken and distraught. The 22-year-old wanted to give the Nationals a miss, but his father Sunil Nagar stepped in and gave his son a pep talk.
He told Krishna that his mother would only feel better up in heaven if he returned to the badminton court with the same passion and similar goals that had earned him a historic gold in Tokyo. He encouraged Krishna to start from scratch with an aim to repeat his heroics at the Paris Games in 2024. And the first step in that direction started with the Nationals.
Spurred by his father's advice, Krishna turned up at the venue with renewed vigour and energy and clinched three gold medals in the categories he participated in - singles, men's doubles and mixed doubles. He repeated his 2019 feat of winning three gold medals in the same categories at the Nationals. Krishna took just 20 minutes to send Sudarshan packing 21-12 21-12 in the men's singles SH6 category. In the mixed doubles, he paired up with Nithya Sre to beat the duo of Dhinagaran and Latatai Umrekar. In the men's doubles, he and Raja Magotra defeated the duo of Dhinagaran and Sivarajan 21-15, 21-15 in 35 minutes.
Asked how he motivated himself for the tournament and stayed mentally strong, Krishna told TOI: "Honestly, I still don't have an answer to this question. It (mother's loss) left me devastated. My father encouraged me to get into training mode and concentrate on my career with the focus on Paris 2024. I am lucky to have complete support of my family. They told me to focus on the upcoming international calendar. I have the dual responsibility of continuing with my badminton and taking my family together."
He added: "I concentrated on my training because I wanted to distract myself from what has happened. Life goes on, sometimes you don't have answers to such incidents. I came to the Nationals to boost my confidence level for the upcoming championships. The performance has certainly helped me in my preparations for the international circuit," he said.
The Nationals was Krishna's first competitive outing after the Tokyo Paralympics. Next year, he will take part in the Spanish para-badminton Internationals Level 1 and 2 in Cartagena, which will also be the beginning of the international circuit for him, followed by the Para Asian Games in China's Hangzhou and World Championships in Japan. "We all (para-badminton players) will have to start from zero for Paris 2024, with the international circuit beginning in March 2022. We need to continue winning medals to secure enough points for qualification" he added.
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