Nagoya: India’s Nitesh Kumar and Thulasimathi Murugesan clinched silver in the Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 category at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Para Games here on Friday.
The Indian pair lost 21-11, 19-21, 14-21 to Indonesia’s Leani Ratri Oktila and Hikmat Ramdani in the final to take the silver.
The Indian pair dominated the opening game 21-11 but narrowly lost the second 19-21 before going down 14-21 in the decider. Despite the defeat, Nitesh and Thulasimathi displayed tremendous fighting spirit, pushing their Indonesian opponents in a closely contested battle for gold.
Thulasimathi is still in contention for the gold medal, as she will be in action in the women’s doubles SL3-SU5 final with Manasi Girishchandra Joshi to take on China’s Yang Qiuxia and Xiao Zuxian.
Earlier in the day, Thulasi bagged a silver medal after losing the women’s singles SU5 final to Yang of China 21-18, 21-21-11, while Nitesh defeated compatriot Pramod Bhagat, who had won gold in the 2018 and 2022 editions, 21-18, 21-16 in the all-India final between two Paralympic champions to win the gold medals in the men’s singles SL4 category.
In another match, Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan signed off with silver after losing 12-21, 13-21 to China’s Li Fengmei in the women’s singles SH6 final.
In para badminton, SL3 is for players with significant lower-limb impairments who compete on a half court, while SL4 is for athletes with lower-limb impairments who have better walking and running balance. SU5 is for players with upper-limb impairments, while SH6 is for athletes with short stature.
India arrived in Aichi-Nagoya after their best-ever Asian Para Games campaign at Hangzhou 2023, where Indian athletes won a record 111 medals – 29 gold, 31 silver and 51 bronze – to finish fifth overall.
India are fourth in the Asian Para Games 2026 medals tally with 104 medals – 27 gold, 34 silver and 43 bronze.
(IANS)
