Paris 2024 Paralympics: Thulasimathi Murugesan, Manisha Ramadass win medals in badminton; take India’s tally into double digits

India’s Thulasimathi Murugesan and Manisha Ramadass won silver and bronze medals, respectively, in the women’s singles badminton SU5 class at the Paris 2024 Paralympics on Monday.

The 22-year-old Thulasimathi, the top seed, settled for the silver medal after losing to the People’s Republic of China’s Yang Qiu Xia 21-17, 21-10 in 30 minutes. The Chinese shuttler, gold medallist at Tokyo 2020, proved to be the dominant player in the final.

The 19-year-old Manisha Ramadass, seeded second, defeated Denmark’s third seed Cathrine Rosengren 21-12, 21-8 in just 25 minutes for the bronze. It marked the first medal for an Indian woman in badminton at the Paralympics.

The two Paralympic medals took India’s tally at Paris 2024 to 11. It is only the second time in the Paralympics history that India have crossed the 10-medal mark. India won 19 medals at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics for their best show in the competition.

Thulasimathi and Manisha also met in the semi-finals. Thulasimathi used her experience to eke out a close win in the first game and eventually sealed the contest 23-21, 21-17.

While Thulasimathi, a student of veterinary science, won the gold medal at the Asian Para Games last year, Manisha is a 2022 world champion in the category.

Athletes competing in the SU5 class have impairment of the upper limbs. The impairment could be on the playing or non-playing hand.  SU stands for Standing/Upper

Earlier in the day, Nitesh Kumar won India’s first badminton gold medal at Paris 2024 in the badminton SL3 class.