| Prakash Padukone प्रकाश पडुकोण |
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|---|---|
Prakash Padukone at the Tata Open championship |
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| Personal information | |
| Birth name | Prakash Padukone |
| Born | June 10, 1955 Bangalore |
| Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) |
| Country | India |
| Handedness | Right |
| Men's singles | |
Prakash Padukone (Konkani : प्रकाश पडुकोण) (born June 10, 1955[1]) is a former badminton player from Karnataka, India. Among other championships, he won the All England Championship and became the first Indian to do so. Prakash was awarded the Padma Sri in 1982. He, along with Geet Sethi, have co-founded Olympic Gold Quest which is a Foundation for the Promotion of Sports in India. Prakash Padukone's life story has been chronicled in the biography 'Touch Play', by Dev S. Sukumar. The book is only the second biography of any badminton player.
Contents |
Prakash was initiated into the game at a tender age by his father Ramesh Padukone, who was the Secretary of the Mysore Badminton Association for many years.
Padukone's first official tournament was the Karnataka state junior championship in 1962. Though he lost in the very first round, two years later he managed to win the state junior title. He changed his playing style into a more aggressive style in 1971, and won the Indian national junior title in 1972. He also won the senior title the same year. He won the Indian national title consecutively for the next seven years, until 1979. In 1978, he won his first major international title, the men's singles gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada. In 1979, he won the Evening of Champions at the Royal Albert Hall, London.
In 1980, he won the Danish Open, the Swedish Open and became the first Indian to win the coveted men's singles title at the All England Championship with a victory over Indonesian rival Liem Swie King. He spent much of his international career training in Denmark, and developed close friendships with European players such as Morten Frost.[2]
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 hails from the Konkani-speaking community of Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmins.[3]
He currently lives in Bangalore with wife Ujjala and two daughters, and runs the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy. He was awarded the Arjuna award in 1972 and the Padma Shri in 1982.
He recently had his biography released at the 2006 nationals. The book, Touchplay, is written by Dev Sukumar.
Prakash is also the father of model turned actress, Deepika Padukone and Anisha Padukone whose aim is to become a golfer.
| Rank | Event | Date | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| World Championships | |||
| 3 | Singles | 1983 | Copenhagen, DEN |
| Commonwealth Games | |||
| 1 | Singles | 1978 | Edmonton, CAN |
| World Cup | |||
| 1 | Singles | 1981 | |
| World Grand Prix | |||
| 1 | Singles | 1979 | Denmark Open |
| 1 | Singles | 1980 | All England Open |