Suhas Yathiraj won his second straight Paralympics silver medal in para-badminton men's singles SL4 after going down to defending champion and home favourite Lucas Mazur in Paris.
In a rematch of the Tokyo Paralympics final between the top two seeds, the Indian lost to the Frenchman 9-21, 13-21. But unlike the Tokyo final which went to the decider, this was a heavily lopsided contest as Mazur, buoyed by a loud and vibrant home crowd, outplayed Suhas in the faster conditions.
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Later in the bronze medal match, Sukant Kadam lost to the reigning bronze medallist Fredy Setiawan 21-17, 21-18, which means the exact same podium will be repeated in Paris three years after Tokyo.
In SL4, athletes who have a less severe lower limb impairment compete across the full court unlike in SL3. Suhas, a 41-year-old IAS officer, was born with a congenital deformity in his left ankle which affects his mobility. Sport came late in his life, after he competed his degree in Computer Engineering from the National Institute of Technology and then became an Indian Administrative Service Officer from the 2007 batch of the Uttar Pradesh cadre. But once he became a regular on the pada-badminton scene, his rise has been rapid even as he balanced his job with his playing career.
The Indian is the current world No 1 but against the defending champion, he was caught short in the final going down 0-7 very early and earning his first points via a service fault. He was trailing 11-2 in the interval and tried to put together some semblance of rhythm in the second half of the first game. The defending champ, though, was riding a wave of confidence and crowd support, and completely unsettled Suhas's game. He was a force to be reckoned with though as he sailed all over the court with sharp attacks, speedy returns, smart variations and an intent to wrap up the final as soon as he could.
The second game saw Suhas put up a much better fight, going for his shots even when missing the lines and trying to shut out the noise. He played the angles and drops well but Mazur was on a different level on the day as he handed Suhas a second straight Paralympic final loss.
Still, it was a medal to be celebrated by the 41-year-old who has successfully defended his silver as the world No 1.
Sukant though, will rue his missed chances as he went down in straight games too despite mounting a solid fightback in both games. This was the 31-year-old's Paralympic debut and he'd lost in the final to fellow Indian Suhas. He had injured his leg while playing cricket with friend at the age of 10 and hid it from his parents leading to a severe infection, but his dream of playing sport was kept alive by para-badminton.
Later in the day, in the last match for an Indian badminton player at the Paralympic Games, Nithya Sre Sivan dominated Indonesian opponent Rina Marlina 21-14, 21-7 to take home bronze, India's eighth medal of the day.
The #1 seed looked comfortable from the off, taking an early lead and never letting it slip through the match. Her clever manipulation of space, pushing clears deep and accurate before finishing off rallies with angled drops was a constant strategy through the bronze medal match, one which Marlina could nothing about. Whenever Marlina looked she would mount a fightback, Nithya stepped on the accelerator, unfurling shots that found impossible angles on different sides of the court. By the end, it was a swift demolition job, one of the most emphatic wins in a bronze medal match you're likely to see at an elite international event.
The 19-year-old from Hosur, Tamil Nadu competes in the newly introduced SH6 category for short statured athletes. She discovered para-badminton as a sport only in 2019, thanks to her father's colleague, a state-level para-badminton player. She competed in her first international event in 2021 where she won gold, and then went on to win two bronze medals at the Asian Para Games. Her bronze here in Paris has underlined her swift rise through the elite para-badminton ranks.