Legends of Indian Sports

Prakash Padukone

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prakash-padukone2Name of the sportsperson:  Prakash Padukone
Discipline: Badminton
State:  Karnataka
Date of Birth:  10th June 1955


Major Achievements:

  • Won All England Open singles winner in 1980.
  • Won Denmark Open in 1979.
  • Winner World Cup singles in 1981.

  • Won Commonwealth Games Gold medal in 1978.
  • Third position in World Championship in 1983

Profile:

Prakash Padukone is one of the most known faces of Indian Sports. He was born on 10th of june 1955 to Ramesh Padukone. He got Badminton  in his genes as his father Ramesh Padukone himself was a Badminton player. Prakash got his first Badminton lessons fron his father who was also the secreatary of Mysore Badminton Association.


He played his first tournament at a tendor age of seven. His first official tournament was the Karnataka state junior championship in 1962. He lost that tournament in the first round that year. Two years later he won that tournament.

In 1970 Prakash won the National Junior Championship. Same year he got the chance to watch legendary player Rudi Hartono of Indoneshia playing in Jamshedpur. His aggesive style of play inspired Padukone a great deal. He changed his style from mild to aggresive and power packed.This shift in gear proved to be a milestone in his career as his success graph rose to unprecedented high. Prakash won both the Junior as well as the senior national title at an age of sixteen. He won the senior national title nine times in a row. This record is still unparralled.


Soon after his national title he was included in the Thomas Cup Team. But his first major achievement came in 1978 when he won the Gold medal in Commonwealth Games held at Edmonton,Canada. He then won the English Masters Championship in 1979 at the Royal Albert Hall, London. He won the Swedish open and Danish open in 1980.


He got his moment of glory in 1980 when he won the most coveted All England Title. He defeated Liem Swie King of Indonesia to clinch the title. His triumph in the All England Championship made him 1st ranked player in the world, the only Indian to do so till date.


Further, he won the Alba World Cup Badminton 1981 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He was the first ever Indian Badminton player to win a World Cup title. He won the Dutch Open and the Hong Kong Open Championships in 1982. Prakash won a Bronze Medal at the World Badminton Championship 1983 held at Copenhagen, Denmark. 
After his retirement in 1991, he was the chairman of the Badminton Association of India for a short while. He was the coach of the Indian national badminton team in 1993 and 1996.


Prakash now runs a Badminton academy in Bangalore where he lives with his wife and two daughters. His elder daughter Deepika Padukone is a well known bollywood actress.

- See more at: http://web.archive.org/web/20140719035725/http://indiansportsnews.com/legends-of-indian-sports/1031-prakash-padukone.html#sthash.3dF6aLGn.dpuf

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