Suhas Yathiraj wins his second silver in consecutive Paralympics as Indian shuttlers put up a show

Indian shuttler Suhas Yathiraj won his second silver medal in the antiquity of the Paralympics after going down to France’s Lucas Mazur in the final of the SL4 badminton category. The 41-year-old Suhas, who is a 2007 batch IAS officer, couldn’t really conjure the powerful trail of displays in the finale despite showing a lot of heart.

It was a repeat finale from the Tokyo games where Mazur won the gold while Suhas had to be content with the silver. His medal took India’s tally in para-badminton to four that saw Nitesh Kumar landing gold earlier while Suhas and T Murugesan clinched silver in their respective disciplines. Manisha Ramadass bagged a bronze to keep the Indian banner flying high.

Suhas started his Group Stage fixture with a victory against Indonesia’s Hikmat Ramdani, following which he overwhelmed South Korea’s Kyung Hwan Shin in the next round. In an all-Indian semi-final, he edged past Sukant Kadam to book himself a final berth where he went down fighting against Mazur.