India's mixed doubles pair of Pramod Bhagat and Palak Kohli lost 9-21, 21-15, 19-21 to Lucas Mazur and Faustine Noel of France.
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The Indian para-badminton campaign at the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics started off with a loss. The country’s mixed doubles pair of Pramod Bhagat and Palak Kohli fell to a closely fought defeat against the second seeds. The Indians lost 9-21, 21-15, 19-21 to Lucas Mazur and Faustine Noel of France. On the other side, Indian swimmer Suyash Jadhav got his time deleted due to technical reasons.
Tremendous effort #IND ‘s Pramod Bhagat and Palak Kohli lose to WR. 2 French duo as they wrap up the match in a tightly-fought encounter – 21-9, 15-21, 21-19#PARALYMPICS #Praise4Para #Tokyo2020
— Doordarshan Sports (@ddsportschannel) September 1, 2021
Pramod Bhagat and Palak Kohli started off well in the match taking a 2-1 lead in the first game. However, that was the only time they seemed comfortable in the first game. The French duo came storming back to wrap up the game 21-9 in just 11 minutes. The second game started with Lucas and Faustine taking an early lead. It felt as if the French would wrap up the match in straight games. But, Palak and Pramod had other ideas. The relentless nature of the Indians took the opponents by surprise. They clinched the second game 21-15 to force the match into a decider.
The decider started with Lucas Mazur and Faustine Noel racing to an 8-5 lead. However, the Indian pair levelled the score at 9-9 before being 9-11 down at the mid-game break. The French duo extended the lead to 14-9 after the break, before Palak Kohli and Pramod Bhagat came storming back. They won six points on the trot to take a 15-14 lead in the decider. Just when it looked like the Indians would wrap this up, Lucas Mazur and Faustine Noel rose from the ashes. They took the decider 21-19 in 19 minutes. With this loss, the pressure is now on Pramod Bhagat and Palak Kohli to win their next encounter if they are to advance to the semifinal.
Indian swimmer Suyash Jadhav had a disappointing start to his Tokyo Paralympics journey, after getting disqualified from the Men’s 100m Breaststroke SB7 final. Competing at his second Paralympics Games, Suyash started in Lane 1 and finished the event but his timing wasn’t registered.
According to the official recorded reason, Suyash was disqualified due to a technical issue as he performed more than one fly kick after the turn. Suyash was also supposed to compete in the Men’s 200m Individual Medley SM7 category on Day 3 of the Tokyo Paralympics. However, he missed out on the event due to illness. He was suffering from a cold and sore throat but tested negative for Covid. Suyash Jadhav will now be in action on Day 10 (3rd September) in Heat 1 of the Men’s 50m Butterfly S7 category at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre.
