Noida DM storms off to finales, says will always remember it

Noida District Magistrate and para-badminton player Suhas L Yathiraj stormed into the finals of the Tokyo Paralympics on Saturday.

Suhas, who has become the first civil servant from the country to represent India in the Tokyo Paralympics, won the men’s singles SL4 semi-final in straight sets.

The Indian shuttler defeated Fredy Setiawan of Indonesia 21-9, 21-15 to seal the match in 31 minutes.

Suhas got off to a brilliant start as he took an early lead in the first Game and kept piling pressure on Setiawan. The Indian shuttler won the first Game 21-9.

The start of the second Game saw a neck to neck fight between the two shuttlers before Suhas took a lead. Suhas then wrapped the essay to seal the second Game 21-15.

“Extremely, extremely happy because I didn’t know until 2016 I would play Para badminton professionally. I don’t have words to describe this. Tokyo will be in my hear forever”, he told a journalist.

Meanwhile, shuttler Manoj Sarkar lost the men’s singles SL3 semi-final match in straight sets on Saturday.
Daniel Bethell of Great Britain defeated Manoj 21-8, 21-10 in the semi-final clash to seal the match in 38 minutes.
Manoj will now compete in the bronze medal later on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, shuttler Pramod Bhagat, the world number one, entered the final after defeating Daisuke Fujihara of Japan 21-11, 21-16 in the men’s singles SL3 event.
Bhagat dominated the proceedings and won the match in straight sets to reach the final.

On Friday, Indian duo Pramod Bhagat and Palak Kohli defeated N Saensupa and Siripong Teamarrom 2-0 in mixed doubles SL3 SU5 Group match to move to the semi-finals.