Thulasimathi Murugesan fell at the final hurdle of the Paris Paralympics women's singles SU5 badminton event and had to settle for silver as she faced a one-sided defeat in the gold medal match.
Murugesan lost to the defending champion China's Yang Qiu Xia 21-17, 21-10 in the gold medal match that only lasted about half an hour.
After some back and forth in the beginning, Murugesan established a comfortable lead only to see the defending champion storm her way back into the match. The Indian at one point was leading 15-11 in the first game, but Xia made a brilliant comeback to take the game 21-17. In the second game, the Chinese gave Murugesan no chance as she dashed to victory in a hurry.
Just before Murugesan's match ended, Manisha Ramadass took the bronze medal in the same class, meaning a double podium for India.
Murugesan was not happy with a second-place finish.
"I feel a little disappointed,... I think I could not give my best, but happy that I got the silver medal," she said after the match.
Analysing her performance she said: "I think I did a lost of mistakes. The game was going good and I should have taken the first set. I have done a lot of mistakes. One or two points on drift and on two, three points, I made unforced error, so the game changed."
Murugesan's silver is the third medal for India in badminton at the ongoing Paralympics. Earlier in the day, Nitesh Kumar had won gold in the SL3 men's singles event while Manisha Ramadass claimed bronze in the SU5 women's singles competition.
Athletes with impairment of the upper limbs compete in the SU5 classification.
