Suhas Yathiraj becomes first IAS officer to win Paralympic medal

Tokyo: India's Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj ended his campaign with a historic silver after going down fighting to top seed Lucas Mazur of France in the men's badminton singles SL4 class final at the Tokyo Paralympics here 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.

The unseeded Suhas had lost to Mazur, who has won three gold medals in European Championships, in the Group A match but the Indian made a tremendous effort in the final to challenge his rival.

The district magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar (Noida) thus also became the first-ever IAS officer to win a medal at the Paralympics.

"I'm quite happy with the performance but I should have finished it off in the second game," said Suhas after winning India's third medal in badminton.

"So I'm a little disappointed that I didn't finish it off because I had a handsome lead in the second game. But congratulations to Lucas. Whoever played better is the winner."

A computer engineer, Suhas went on to become an IAS officer and has been posted as a district magistrate of Noida since 2020, a role that saw him at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

On the court, he has won gold medals at 2017 BWF Turkish Para badminton championship in men's singles and men's doubles. He also won gold in 2016 Asia championships, besides a bronze at 2018 Asian Para Games.

In SL4 class, shuttlers have lower limb impairment/severe and they play standing.

In SL4 bronze medal play-off, second seed Tarun Dhillon went down 17-21, 11-21 to Indonesia's Fredy Setiawan in 32 minutes to miss out of a medal at the Yoyogi national stadium.