A mechanical engineer, star Indian para-shuttler Sukant Kadam made his international debut in 2014 at the England Para Badminton International and became world number 2 in the SL4 category (class for para-badminton athletes with lower limb impairments) in June 2017. At the 2019 World Champs, Sukant won a bronze in men’s singles in his category as his journey to greatness began. But before that, he had won bronze in the men’s doubles at the Asian Champs in 2016, in the last edition of the tournament before it makes a comeback this year. Ahead of his match, Sukant spoke to News18 Sports on the pressure of representing India as World No. 2 in his category at the Asian Champs, the heartbreak of finishing fourth in Paris and his aspirations for LA 2028. As a world No. 2 in your category, is the pressure too much ahead of the Asian Championships? There is always a pressure to be ranked in the top half in here, but I always divert this kind of pressure into positive directions. Even though I am ranked high, it’s a responsibility for me to justify this rank, and I try to divert myself in a positive direction. Becoming the world no. 2 is a great achievement, and then with these achievements, people start expecting some good results from you. So, I take this responsibility, and I try to perform with this responsibility. How do you see SL4 flourishing in India, given that there are five Indians in the top 10? Para-badminton in India is growing very fast. You can see there are a lot of categories where you can find five or six players in the top 10, and SL4 especially is the toughest event when you’re competing internationally and nationally, there are a lot of Indian players, who are coming with very good energy and the youngsters are doing very good. You can see there are two to three youngsters in the top 10, and then we have Suhas with the amount of experience, and after the Paralympics, we took a little bit of a break, and they have performed well. So it’s now our responsibility to justify ourselves. You have an Asian Championships bronze from 2016 in doubles. It is being held after such a long time. What do you think you have learnt over all these years to put up a better performance? The best learning was to not give up because whenever I got a bigger opportunity or whenever a crucial moment came, it’s a matter of time only, and then when you believe in yourself, the results will automatically convert. So when I played in 2016, that was my first big tournament when I played the Asian Games, and since it’s happening after nine years, I am expecting a better result. The way I’m preparing, the way I have prepared myself over the last nine years, it was excellent, and I’m expecting a good result from this tournament. You finished fourth in your category at the Paris Olympics. How did you deal with it? It’s 50-50. When you finish fourth in any tournament, it is a very difficult thing to digest. All your fellow semi-finalists got the medal, and you are the one who was left out. It’s a difficult position to digest, I would say, but it is what it is. I have done everything in my hands and I have given a very good result. I have played very excellent matches, and then in a crucial moment, I couldn’t convert it, and that’s a big learning for me, and I’m taking the learning and moving forward. I’m not thinking about the past. The Los Angeles Paralympics are still three years from now. Do you see yourself playing there? I’m looking at myself on the podium because I missed it by a bare margin in Paris. But definitely, it’s a long journey to qualify for LA and then playing at that tournament. But I’m aiming for the medal there.