Outshining his previous two performances where he secured Bronze at the Championship
Hyderabad, September 2023: C.M. Shashidhar, a prominent figure in the badminton circuit of Hyderabad and India, secured the silver medal in the 45+ men’s singles category at the esteemed BWF World Senior Championship 2023. The event took place at the Hwasan Indoor Stadium, Jeonju, Korea, from September 11th to 18th. This marks his third World Championship Medal, following his bronze wins in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2013 and Kochi in 2017.
On his journey to claiming the silver medal in Jeonju, Shashidhar defeated Feng Hung Yun of Chinese Taipei with scores of 21–14 and 21–14 in the Quarter Finals. In the Semi-finals, his opponent, Conrad HUECKSTAEDTof Switzerland, retired after losing the first game 20-22 but winning the second game 21-13. In the finals, Shashidhar faced the formidable Hosemari FUJIMOTO of Japan and fell short with scores of 10–21 and 13–22.
“It was a dream come true for me,” said Shashidhar. “After striving hard in the previous two BWF World Senior Championships and being content with the Bronze Medal, I pushed myself further in training for this year’s Championship. However, I faced an admirable challenger who bested me. I will redouble my efforts for the next Championship,” says C.M. Shashidhar. I am thankful to my parents and coaches for making me what I am today. Grateful to my practice partners who made me fit to get a silver in the world championship. My message to aspiring kids is to have regularity, sincerity, work hard, focus and an aim to become someone, need to sacrifice many things to be a champion. We have around fifty students in the Sashidhar Badminton Academy, want them to excel and achieve what all I dreamt and couldn’t do.
Shri B. Bala Hanumanth Rao said, you need to sacrifice and forget everything to become a competitive player, only by working hard one can become a good player. Now a days all the facilities are within the reach of someone aspiring to achieve his dreams, in our days we hardly had any amenities, it was sheer hard work which took us to the levels we wanted to achieve.
Maj. Gen. Rajesh Kundra said, Sashidhar made the nation proud, he scripted the future, he has shown all of us the way forward. Children will be motivated and inspired with his accomplishment, just not that, he has motivated people of all ages including me. He has proven that age is just a number, he has given a direction to all of us to not to give up. We have agoal and we need to pursue it.
The BWF World Senior Championship is a biennial event featuring individual competitions in men’s and women’s singles and doubles, as well as mixed doubles categories. The Championship encompasses age groups ranging from +35 to +80.
Shashidhar received accolades from the legendary badminton player and his coach, Shri B. Bala Hanumanth Rao and Maj. Gen. Rajesh Kundra, AVSM, SM (Retd.); for this monumental achievement. The grand reception, held at Shashidhar Badminton Academy in Kowkoor, was attended by badminton players from yesteryears, as well as current and aspiring athletes. Shri Bala Hanumanth Rao, a former state badminton champion for over a decade and a winner of several prestigious tournaments in the South Zone, was a close rival of Prakash Padukone during the latter’s reign in the national and international badminton arena. Shri Bala Hanumanth Rao played a vital role in nurturing and shaping Shashidhar into a champion from a young age at the Boiguda Institute.