Manisha wins BWF Female Para-Badminton Player of the Year award
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The Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Monday announced Manisha as the winner after the 17-year-old bagged gold in the SU5 category at the World Championships. Overall, he won 11 gold and five bronze medals in 2022.
India’s Nitya Sri Sumathi and Manasi Joshi, Sarina Sadomi, Giuliana Poveda Flores and Pilar Jaregui competed in this category.
However, Paralympic champion Pramod Bhagat and Thomas Cup winner HS Pranai missed out on the prestigious award.
Bhagat, who won his fourth World Championships singles gold this year, was among those shortlisted for the BWF Male Para-Badminton Player of the Year award, but the award was WH2 world champion and reigning Paralympic champion Teiki Kajiwara, who won 10 golds and won 10 golds. A total of four bronze medals. Apart from Bhagat, the Japanese received recognition over Cheah Liek Hou, Lucas Mazur, Chu Man Kai and Choi Jungman.
In the award for able-bodied shuttlers, the extraordinary dominance of Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen and Zheng Chi Wei/Huang Ya Kiong was honored this season as they won the BWF Player of the Year awards in their respective categories.
Axelsen won the BWF Male Player of the Year award for sweeping almost everything in his path during the qualifying period from November 1, 2021 to October 31, 2022. Axelsen won nine titles, including his second World Championship crown. Three consecutive world tour titles, the BWF said in a statement on its official website.
The BWF Player of the Year was won by Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi, who won back-to-back World Championship titles within a nine-month period. He also won two other titles – All-England Open and Japan Open. The other contestants are Ahn Se Young and Tae Soo Ying.
Fajr Alfian/Muhammad Ryan Artianto’s impressive consistency until 2022, when they made eight finals and won four, saw them named the BWF Most Improved Players of the Year. The Indonesians won the honor ahead of HS Pranai and Jeong Na Eun/Kim Hye Jeong.
Japan’s 21-year-old Kodai Naroka, who has had a meteoric rise in 2022, won the Eddie Chung Promising Player of the Year award. Naroka made four finals and won the Vietnam Open.
(This story was not edited by DevDiscourse staff and was generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
