India Paralympics athlete Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj bagged a silver medal after he lost to top seed Lucas Mazur of France in the men’s singles SL4 class final at the Tokyo Paralympics on Sunday.
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 a 62-minute summit clash.
Suhas had lost to Mazur, who has won three gold medals in European Championships as well, in the qualifying group A match but the Indian made a tremendous effort in the final to challenge his world No. 1 rival.
In a major development, the district magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida) thus also became the first-ever IAS officer to win a medal at the Paralympics.
Deepa Malik, the President of the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) on Sunday hailed badminton player Suhas L Yathiraj for his “fantastic display” in the finals of the Tokyo Paralympics.
“Another medal secured in Badminton! Extremely proud of the fantastic display put on by @dmgbnagar Suhas Yathiraj to win the #Silver. A fantastic debut for us in Para-Badminton at the @Paralympic with a couple of matches still to go,” Deepa Malik tweeted.
Former sports minister Kiren Rijiju also showered praises on the IAS officer.
“Inspiring IAS officer Suhas Yathiraj has made India extremely proud at #Tokyo2020 #Paralympics Congratulations Suhas Yathiraj on winning spectacular silver medal in the Men’s Badminton Singles SL4!” wrote Kiren Rijiju.
Meanwhile, shuttler Tarun Dhillon missed out on a bronze medal after he faced a defeat at the hands of Indonesia’s Fredy Setiawan in the men’s singles SL4 event of the Tokyo Paralympics on Sunday.
