Krishna secures gold, Suhas clinches silver

TOKYO, Sep 5: Krishna Nagar secured a second gold medal in badminton after Suhas Yathiraj claimed a silver as it turned out to be a Super Sunday for the Indian badminton contingent at the Tokyo Paralympics here.
The 22-year-old Nagar, seeded second, defeated Hong Kong’s Chu Man Kai 21-17 16-21 21-17 in the men’s singles SH6 class final to retain his unbeaten run at the Games and join compatriot Pramod Bhagat in the gold medal winning list.
Bhagat had claimed India’s first gold in badminton in SL3 class on Saturday.
“This is a dream come true. I want to thank my father, mother, uncle, auntie, God, my coaches,” said Nagar after winning India’s fifth gold at the Games.
“This is the first time that badminton has been added to the Paralympics and I hope that India will keep winning and doing their best at upcoming Games.”
Suhas ended his campaign with a silver after going down fighting against top seed Lucas Mazur of France in the men’s singles SL4 class final.
The 38-year-old Noida district magistrate, who has an impairment in one of his ankles, produced an entertaining performance before narrowly going down 21-15 17-21 15-21 to two-time world champion Mazur in the summit clash.
Bhagat and Palak Kohli, however, lost 21-23 19-21 in mixed doubles Sl3-SU5 class bronze medal playoff.
Nagar, who has a short stature impairment, started playing the sport seriously only four years back and ended up winning a bronze at Para Asian Games before claiming a bronze and silver at 2019 World Championships in singles and doubles respectively.
The world No. 2 also won a silver in Brazil and two gold medals in singles and doubles in Peru last year.
He also claimed two gold medals at the Dubai Para Badminton International in April this year.
Nagar, who last played Chu Man Kai in the Thailand para badminton two years ago, came into the match with a 2-1 head-to-head advantage.
Earlier, unseeded Suhas, the district magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida), became the first-ever IAS officer to win a medal at the Paralympics.
In SL4 class, shuttlers have lower limb impairment/severe and they play standing.
In bronze medal play-off, second seed Tarun Dhillon, however, went down 17-21, 11-21 to Indonesia’s Fredy Setiawan in 32 minutes. (PTI)