Asia Pacific Deaf Games: Indian shuttlers clinch five medals

Indian deaf contingent continued to shine as they added a few more medals to their tally on day 5 of the 2024 Asia-Pacific Deaf Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Thursday.

Indian shuttlers caught the limelight on the day, winning five medals - 2 Silver and 3 Bronze, on the finals day. Abhinav Sharma was the star performer winning two silver medals in men's singles and mixed doubles categories.

With this, the Indian contingent maintained their position in the top ten of the medal tally having 19 medals: 1 gold, 9 silver, and 9 bronze medals.

Three Medals for Paralympic Champion Jerlin Anika

The Paralympic Champion Jerlin Anika Jayaratchagan grabbed three medals (1 silver and 2 bronze medals) from the Games.

She partnering with Abhinav Sharma, entered the tournament as the top-seeded pair in the mixed doubles category. They showed excellent skills throughout to reach the final without dropping any game.

However, they could not continue the same in the final, losing in a tight three-game (13-21, 21-14, 19-21) to the third-seed Korean pairing of Minkyeong Park and Myeongsoo Seo, settling for the silver medal.

Jerlin also won the bronze medal in the women's singles category after losing her semi-final match (13-21, 21-23) to the eventual champion Minkyeong Park of South Korea. 

Later, she partnered with Aaditya Yadav and clinched her third medal from the event in the women's doubles category after losing the semi-final to Japan's Mai Yakabe and Ayaka Yakabe.

Double Podium in men's singles category

Indian shuttlers, Abhinav Sharma and Piyush won the silver and bronze medals respectively in the men's singles category to complete a double podium for India in this category.

Both players lost their respective matches to the eventual champion Myeongsoo Seo of South Korea. Piyush lost in the semi-final (12-21, 11-21) to Seo while second-seeded Abhinav lost (8-21, 9-21)in the final match.

However, they failed to win a medal in the men's doubles category as they playing as a pair, lost the quarterfinal match to Japan's Yuki Morimoto and Yuya Ito.