Having to settle for silver in his fourth major final, to a player he’d never lost in nine matches, was hard for Daniel Bethell. It particularly stung knowing he’d missed match point.

At the end of the 80-minute men’s singles Standing Lower (SL3) final, Bethell had made a tremendous recovery to stand on the cusp of achieving a long-held dream. He’d fought back from 12-17 and now stood at 20-19, set for a fairy tale comeback win after finishing second at the previous Paralympics and two World Championships.

And yet, his opponent Nitesh Kumar second-guessed what his opponent was going through. He was likely to rush the last point.

Discipline had been key, and Kumar had heard Bethell’s coach telling him to be disciplined as the match headed to its climactic finish. It was advice that he took to heart.

“I knew he’d be eager to take it as he was trailing throughout the match,” Nitesh recalled. “I knew this was the one moment when he was leading in the match and he’d try to take it quickly and make an error, and I didn’t want to rush. He rushed the point and made a mistake – it happened very quickly.

“At the end of the third game, I was a bit confused and I heard the (GB) coach tell Daniel to be disciplined. And that’s what I told myself, that I have to be disciplined, and that’s what worked for me better than him.

“I can’t believe it because it happened in a fraction of a second. It was going close, 20-all, 21-all, and then suddenly two quick points, and I’m the Paralympic champion. I don’t know how to express what I’m feeling, but looking at the crowd, my coaches, my teammates, everybody from India, it feels amazing.”

Bethell, who’d fought hard all the way, recovering from a first game loss and significant deficits in the second and third games, said he was gutted.

“At the moment it feels pretty devastating. I came here for the gold, got a silver in Tokyo, and it was my ambition to do better, but just couldn’t get over the line.

“It’s all about making less errors, SL3 is the marathon event of Para badminton. There’s not a lot of room to make errors. I’m just sorry I couldn’t execute it the way I needed to.

“You can do a lot of training, do some work with psychology, but nothing can prepare you for this, and to have that gold medal point, it’s just a surreal experience. It’s a hard thing to describe. It’s a shame I couldn’t convert. It was all mental at the end of it. It’s the hardest thing we’ll ever have to do.”

Other Highlights

» Sarina Satomi defended her women’s singles WH1 gold beating Sujirat Pookkham in an hour-long encounter 18-21 21-13 21-18.

» Another successful defending champion in the morning session was Cheng He Fang in women’s singles SL4, as she won a repeat of the Tokyo 2020 final against Leani Ratri Oktila, 21-14 21-18.

» Oktila however defended her mixed doubles crown, but with a different partner, Hikmat Ramdani, as they prevailed in an all-Indonesian final over Fredy Setiawan/Khalimatus Sadiyah, 21-16 21-15.

» China’s Yang Qiu Xia added to her team’s swelling gold medal tally beating Thulasimathi Murugesan 21-17 21-10 in the women’s singles SU5 final.

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