Indian badminton player Manisha Ramdas on Sunday entered the women’s singles semi-finals in the SU5 category at the Paralympic Games where she will face compatriot Thulasimati Murugesan, ensuring India a medal in the event. Manisha had a birth defect in her right hand. The 19-year-old had no trouble defeating Japan’s Mamiko Toyoda 21- 13 21-16 in the quarter-finals.
The second seeded Indian player knocked out her unseeded opponent in just 30 minutes. In the last four, Manisha will face top seed Tulsimati, who defeated Portugal’s Beatriz Monteiro in Group A on Saturday. In the men’s singles semi-finals in the SL4 category, two Indian players Suhas Yathiraj and Sukant Kadam will face each other. In this way, both of them had confirmed India’s first medal in badminton.
Earlier, Mandeep Kaur and Palak Kohli failed to advance beyond the quarter-finals. Playing in the SL3 category, Mandeep could not pose any challenge to third seed Bolaji Mariam Eniola of Nigeria and lost the match 8-21, 9-21 in 23 minutes. This is Mandeep’s second consecutive defeat against Eniola. Earlier, she had also lost to the Nigerian player in the group stage.
PM congratulated the para athletes who won medals, could not talk to Avni
In the SL4 category, Para World Championship bronze medallist Palak lost to Indonesia’s Khalimatus Saadiah 19-21, 15-21 in 28 minutes. Later in the day, Nithya Sivan Sumati will challenge in the quarter-finals of the SH6 category. She will face Olivia Szmigiel of Poland. In the men’s singles semi-finals of the SL3 category, Nitesh Kumar will face Daisuke Fujihara of Japan.