IAS officer Mr. Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj, who won a silver medal in Tokyo Paralympics on Sunday, doesn’t want to be remembered as an IAS officer or as a Paralympian, but as a good human being.
Mr Suhas might have lost the finals of Badminton singles in SL4 category, to the world number one French player Lukas Mazur in a very close match but he gave a very tough fight. Mazur had defeated Suhas in the group match in straight sets but in the finals he had to fight for every single point and lost the first set to Suhas.
Talking to Indian Masterminds after the match Mr Suhas sounded a little disappointed about not getting gold because he was fully prepared. However, he is hopeful for his future tournaments.
Took tips from Olympian PV Sindhu
The collector of Gautam Buddha Nagar says that AC’s drift in the indoor stadium was biggest reason behind his loss. lThe indoor stadia normally have huge ACs and the air coming out from them create drifts. It is tough to strike a balance in your game due to that. ” I used to practise at Gopi Chand stadium in Greater Noida to learn combating air drifts. playing this helped me winning the first set. But in the second game it forced many unforced errors because I was not able to strike the right balance. This is the reason why I lost the second set and then in third the I was under pressure and drift was continuously hampering my game & I lost”, said Mr. Suhas.
He also mentioned that PV Sindhu gave her some match winning tips and also made him aware about the drift factor.
THE MATCH
History was created when IAS officer Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj reached the Badminton court today at the Tokyo Paralympics. A well-known shuttler, Mr. Suhas had to face the number 1 rank holder Lukas Mazur. As expected, the match was full of thrills and gripping moments. The officer gave a tough fight to the top seed but lost the match and finished off with a Silver medal.
The 2007 batch officer from the Uttar Pradesh cadre is currently serving as the District Collector of Noida. He is the only administrative officer to take part in Paralympics and win a medal.
In the final played to Sunday, he made a terrific start by winning the first set from French player Mazur by 21-15. In the next two set, the officer gave a tough fight but lost by 21-17 and 21-15. Although his dream to win gold lay broken, he nevertheless created history through his performance in his first Paralympic.
Before this, Mr Suhas had won International Badminton Tournament in Turkey and Para Badminton International Tournament in Uganda. He was also the runner-up in Japan Open Para Badminton tournament held in Tokyo in 2017, and won bronze in doubles SL-4 category. He also won gold in Asian Championship held in China in 2016.
ALL PRAISES FOR SUHAS
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ramnath Kovind praised this Para shuttler on winning Silver in Tokyo. PM Modi in his tweet called Mr. Suhas a fantastic confluence of sports. President Kovind congratulated him and called his dedication in pursuing sports while discharging duties as exceptional.
Various other civil servants and IAS association also praised Mr Suhas’s achievement.
STRUGGLING JOURNEY
Mr. Suhas hails from Shimoga, Karnataka and had issue in his right leg since childhood. This made his life struggling but he never lost hope. He was agreat admirer of sports, specially cricket and used to play various games. The officer loved to play badminton but never pursued it professionally.
He did his engineering from NIT with Computer Science.
According to media reports, Mr Suhas had not thought of becoming a civil servant till very late. Then in 2005 he lost his father which impacted his whole life. As a tribute to his father, he started preparing for UPSC and was selected as an IAS officer in 2007.
He has served as the DM of various districts including Prayagraj, Hathras etc. He is known to be very sensible and empathetic officer. He came to Noida as the DM in 2020 and impressed everyone with his working style.
Mr Suhas started a unique initiative of Coffee with Collector to encourage Plasma donors during first wave of Covid19. The officer started to play professional Badminton from Azamgarh where he was posted as the DM. Since then, he has never looked back and made the country proud in various international tournaments.
