Bhagat-Kohli mixed doubles duo loses bronze medal match in Paralympics badminton

Tokyo: The Indian mixed doubles duo of Pramod Bhagat and Palak Kohli suffered a narrow defeat at the hands of Japan's Daisuke Fujihara and Akiko Sugino in their bronze-medal play-off match of the Paralympics here on Sunday.

The Indian duo lost 21-23 19-21 to their Japanese opponents in the SL3-SU5 class final that lasted 37 minutes to end their campaign at fourth place.

They had earlier lost the semifinals 3-21 15-21 to te Indonesian combination of Hary Susanto and Leani Ratri Oktila.

The two pairs were neck-and-neck throughout the match. The Indians were 10-8 up in the first game but the Japanese came back strongly to level at 10-10.

After that, the score-line read 14-14, 18-18 and then 20-20. The Indians were up 21-20 but then eventually lost 21-23.

In the second game also, the two pairs were on equal footing and 10-10 at the midway point before the Japanese surged ahead to win 21-19 and pocket the bronze.

The 33-year-old Bhagat on Saturday claimed India's first badminton gold at the Paralympics in men's singles SL3 class.

It was 19-year-old Kohli's debut Paralympics.

In SL3 class, shuttlers with minor lower limb impairment play standing while players with upper limb impairment play standing in SL5.