Manisha Ramadass, a teenage shuttler from India, has been crowned the BWF Female Para-Badminton Player of the Year, the Badminton World Federation (BWF) said on Monday.
Manisha Ramadass, shuttler Awarded the BWF Female Para-Badminton Player of the Year title
Manisha Ramadass, the 2022 World Champion in the SU5 division, finished the year with a total of 11 gold and five bronze medals, earning her the title of BWF Female Para-Badminton Player of the Year for her outstanding play.
Sarina Satomi, Giuliana Poveda Flores, Pilar Jauregui, Nithya Sre Sumathy, and Manasi Joshi of India were also competitors in this category.
The BWF Awards Commission granted a special exception for the BWF Para-Badminton World Championships 2022, which ended on November 6, to be included in the list of sanctioned competitions in badminton.
The BWF Male Para-Badminton Player of the Year award went to Daiki Kajiwara, the current Paralympic champion and WH2 world champion, who has won 10 gold and four bronze medals overall. India’s Pramod Bhagat was one of the players shortlisted for the award. In addition to Bhagat, the Japanese received the BWF Awards Commission’s vote before Cheah Liek Hou, Lucas Mazur, Chu Man Kai, and Choi Jungman.
Viktor Axelsen and Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong were honoured for their outstanding dominance this season by winning the BWF Player of Year Awards in their respective categories in the comparable awards for the able-bodied shuttlers.
By sweeping almost everything in his path, Axelsen was named the BWF Male Player of the Year. Between November 1, 2021, and October 31, 2022, there is an eligible period.
The BWF said on its official website that Axelsen won nine championships, including his second Total Energies BWF World Championships victory, which came after three straight HSBC BWF World Tour victories.
With nine wins, China’s Zheng/Huang were virtually invincible in mixed doubles and won the BWF Pair of the Year award ahead of Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik, Chen Qing Chen/Jia Yi Fan, and Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai.
Akane Yamaguchi of Japan, who achieved the extraordinary honour of winning back-to-back World Championships titles within a nine-month span, was named the BWF Female Player of the Year. The All-England Open 2022 and the Japan Open 2022 were two further victories for her. Tai Tzu Ying and An Se Young were the other candidates.
Because of their outstanding consistency in 2022, when they reached eight finals and won four of them, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto were named the BWF Most Improved Players of the Year. HS Prannoy and Jeong Na Eun/Kim Hye Jeong were beaten out for first place by the Indonesian team.
The Eddy Choong Most Valuable Player of the Year was went to the Japanese player Kodai Naraoka, age 21, who rose quickly in 2022. The Vietnam Open was won by Naraoka, who reached four finals.