Nitesh Kumar won gold for India in the para badminton men’s singles SL3 event of the Paris 2024 Paralympics held at the La Chapelle Arena in Paris on Monday.
The top seed beat Great Britain’s second-seeded Daniel Bethell 21-14, 18-21, 23-21 in the gold medal match to win India its second gold medal of the ongoing Paralympics.
“I still don’t feel it. May be when I go to the podium and the national anthem is played, it will sink in,” Nitesh said after the match.
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The SL3 category includes players that have moderately restricted movement in one or both limbs or the absence of limbs. The game is played in a half-width court with no restriction on the shots played.
Nitesh and Daniel began Game 1 with long rallies characteristic of the SL3 category and after a neck-and-neck battle till the midway stage, the Indian shuttler wrested the momentum, speeding to a 21-14 win.
The second game too saw a close battle but the 29-year-old Indian stuttered in the final few points of Game 2, forcing a deciding game.
“I have lost such situation against him and I didn’t want to make the same mistakes. I had lost my calm in the past so I told myself that I should keep fighting for each point. At 19-20 in decider also I told myself to stick in there and make him earn the point,” Nitesh added.
A 19-16 lead in the decider saw Nitesh almost within touching distance of the gold but Daniel kept him on his toes, the two exchanging gold medal points before the Indian finally triumphed.
“I usually don’t play with such patience and trust my strokes as they are deceptive but when I started in the first game here, I planned that I have to play well the first few points to get comfortable. Then I can play my strokes and I could see he was desperate. But due to the conditions, I didn’t try too many variations, just looked to play steady,” the debutant said.
(With inputs from PTI)
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