Tokyo Paralympics: History-making IAS officer Suhas Yathiraj wins silver medal

Tokyo, September 5: Suhas Yathiraj scripted history as the first ever IAS officer to win a medal at the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics after settling for silver in the men's singles SL4 gold medal match against France's Lucas Mazur on Sunday (September 5).

Suhas opened the match with a 21-15 win in game 1, but the top seeded Frenchman Mazur replied with a 21-17 win in the second game before sealing the match 21-15 in the third game at Court 1 - Yoyogi National Stadium.

The unseeded Indian started the match swiftly and ran off with a lead of 11-8 at the mid-game interval against the Frenchman and continued with his superior tactics to take the first game easily by 21-15 in 20 minutes.

But Mazur showed his experience when it mattered most and won the close second game by 21-17 in 22 minutes and pushed the match to the decider.

The third game started off to a cagey start as both players did not give each other any room to take the early advantage. Despite the Indian leading 11-10 at the interval, the top-seed once again halted Suhas' charge and won the third set by 21-15 in 21 minutes as Suhas had to be satisfied with the silver.

Earlier on Sunday (September 5), his compatriot, Tarun Dhillon missed out on a bronze medal after he faced a defeat at the hands of Indonesia's Fredy Setiawan in the same men's singles SL4 event.

Setiawan defeated Tarun in straight sets 21-17, 21-11 to clinch the bronze medal match in just 32 minutes.

Tarun, who got off to a decent start, lost first the first game 21-17 after a giving a good fight to Setiawan and the Indonesian took the closely-fought first game to move closer to the bronze medal.

In the second game, Setiawan continued his fine form and took an early lead in the contest, leading 11-4 at the halfway mark before closing the second game 21-11 to clinch the bronze medal.

On Saturday (September 4) in the men's singles SL3 event, shuttler Pramod Bhagat clinched the gold medal after defeating Great Britain's Daniel Bethell 21-14, 21-17, while Manoj Sarkar won bronze by defeating Japan's Daisuke Fujihara 22-20, 21-13.