Indian shuttler Suhas Yathiraj, an IAS officer enter the final of the men’s singles class SL4 badminton event in Tokyo Paralympics on Saturday.
The 38-year-old stormed into the finals by defeating Indonesia’s Fredy Setiawan 21-9, 21-15 in 31 minutes in the first semifinal. Suhas Yathiraj is the first civil servant from the country to represent India in the Tokyo Paralympics. In SL classification, persons with standing/lower limb impairment/severe are allowed to compete. While SU refers to athletes with upper limb impairment. The Noida District Magistrate will face top seed Lucas Mazur of France in the gold medal match on Sunday.
Pramod Bhagat enters into the final
Earlier in the day, India’s star shuttler Pramod Bhagat, entered the final after defeating Daisuke Fujihara of Japan 21-11, 21-16 in the men’s singles SL3 event. World No.1, dominated the match from the start and beats Daisuke in straight sets in the first SL3 class semifinals that lasted 36 minutes.
The current World and Asian champion will face Great Britain’s Daniel Bethell in the final later in the day at 3 pm IST.
“It was a great game against Fujihara, he pushed me with some great shots. But I had a plan and I executed it very well. I am happy I have reached my maiden Paralympic finals. But the work is not done yet,” said Bhagat after his match.
Pramod Bhagat is a legend himself, has won a total of 45 international medals, including four world championship golds. In the last eight years, Pramod won two golds and a bronze in men’s singles. He also won two golds and a silver in men’s doubles at the BWF Para world championships. (https://teamtapper.com) This year, Bhagat had bagged two gold medals at the Dubai Para-Badminton tournament.