Tokyo Paralympics: Suhas Yathiraj becomes the first IAS to win a Paralympic medal

Medals continue to galore for India on the final day as well of the Tokyo Paralympics as Suhas Yathiraj won the silver medal in the finals of the Men's Singles SL4 category. Suhas was up against the World No.1 Lucas Mazur of France and knew that his work was cut out and it turned out to be an enthralling final as well. Suhas won the first set with a scoreline of 21-15 but the Frenchman made a strong comeback in the second set winning 21-17 and used all his experience in the final set to win 21-15 and secure the gold medal. However, it was still an outstanding achievement for India's Suhas Yathiraj to win the silver medal.

Suhas Yathiraj becomes the third Indian shuttler and also the first-ever IAS officer of the country to win a medal at the Paralympics. The 38-year-old was also the first civil servant to win a gold medal at an international event and he achieved the feat at the 2016 Asian Para-Badminton Championship. Suhas is currently posted as a District Magistrate in the Gautam Buddha Nagar, in Noida.

At the Tokyo Paralympics, Suhas started his campaign impressively as he won his first two group stage matches in straight sets. He defeated Germany's Jan-Niklas Pott with a scoreline of 21-9 and 21-3 in his first match and followed that up by beating Indonesia's Hary Susanto, 21-6 and 21-12, in his second match. Suhas showed a lot of grit in his final group match against World No.1 Lucas Mazur of France, as he lost the match with the scoreline reading 21-15 and 21-17 in Mazur's favour.

However, he had no problems in the semifinals against Indonesia's Fredy Setiawan as he won the match quite comfortably by 21-9 and 21-15, securing his place in the gold medal match and also confirming a medal in the process.

In the final, he was once again up against France's Lucas Mazur and he knew from his group stage match that it will be a tough outing against the Frenchman. While Suhas, did lose the final and had to settle for the silver, he should be incredibly proud of his effort as he made the World No.1 sweat really hard for the victory