India’s Nitesh Kumar clinched his maiden gold medal at the Paralympics, defeating Great Britain’s Daniel Bethell in a gripping men’s singles SL3 badminton final on Monday.

The 29-year-old from Haryana showcased incredible resilience and tactical brilliance, overcoming Tokyo silver medallist Bethell in a nail-biting contest that lasted an hour and 20 minutes, with the final scoreline reading 21-14, 18-21, 23-21.

“I still don’t feel it,” Nitesh said after the match.

Competing in the SL3 category, which is reserved for players with severe lower limb disabilities and requires to play on a half-width court, Nitesh’s journey to gold was anything but ordinary.

At the age of 15, he lost his left leg in a train accident in Visakhapatnam in 2009. However, this devastating event didn’t crush his spirit.

His victory on Monday not only marked a personal triumph but also ensured that India retained the SL3 gold, which Pramod Bhagat had won three years ago when badminton made its Paralympic debut in Tokyo.

Facing an opponent who had beaten him nine times in the past, Nitesh, an IIT Mandi graduate, displayed immense mental fortitude as he recorded his first win over Bethell.

“I didn’t think it this way. Thoughts were coming into my mind, ‘how I will win’... But I was not thinking about what I will do after I win, I pushed that feeling away,” he said.

The final was a test of endurance and skill, with both players engaging in excruciating rallies, including a nearly three-minute rally of 122 shots in the opening game.

While Nitesh won gold, Thulasimathi Murugesan missed one in the women’s singles SU5 category. The 22-year-old Thulasimathi, the top seed, put up a fight before going down 17-21, 10-21 against China’s defending champion Yang Qiuxia in the final.

Thulasimathi’s compatriot Manisha Ramadass won a bronze medal in the same category. Second seed Manisha, playing at the adjacent court, outplayed Denmark’s Cathrine Rosengren, seeded third, 21-12, 21-8.

The SU5 category is for athletes with impairment on the upper limbs, which could be in the playing or the non-playing hand.

Discus silver

Yogesh Kathuniya clinched his second consecutive Paralympic silver medal in men’s discus throw F-56 event with a season’s best performance.

The 29-year-old hurled the discus to 42.22m in his very first attempt to add to the silver he won in the Tokyo Paralympics. Brazil’s Claudiney Batista dos Santos registered a hat-trick of Paralympic gold medals, creating a new Games record with an effort of 46.86m in his fifth attempt.

The F-56 is a seating field event class for differently-abled athletes. People with amputations and spinal cord injuries take part in this classification.

Archers in semis

The Indian duo of Sheetal Devi and Rakesh Kumar progressed to the semi-finals with a 154-143 win over Indonesia’s Teodora Audi Ayudia Ferellyin and Ken Swagumilang in the mixed team compound open archery quarter-finals.