And at the end of the suspense, the French won the first French medal in the discipline’s history at the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday.
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Lucas Mazur is exceptional! The world number one competed in the final match of the badminton championship, in the SL4 class, at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo on Sunday, September 5th, winning his first French title in the discipline. Against India’s Suhas Yathiraj, the 23-year-old world number one had to work hard and rely on his physical and mental resources to win in three sets (15-21, 21-17, 21-15). This is the fifty-third medal for the French delegation and the eleventh gold medal.
Like the semi-finals against the world number two, Tarun Al-Hindi (two sets to one win), Lucas Mazur and Sahs Yathraj fought a giant fight that angered the team members and partner players, who are the only ones allowed to be in the Yoyogi Stadium on Sunday.
In the first round, the French appeared to have taken a physical blow against an opponent he had already defeated earlier in the tournament, in the group stage. Less airy, less precise and the face is tired, it’s an exaggeration to say the pointers weren’t green for the 2017 and 2019 double world champion.
But little by little, from the middle of the second set, the shuttlecock started shooting off the racket again. He began to listen to “Lucas, Lucas”, to the ire of the French player, who gradually regained his clarity. He tightened the match perfectly to get him round all over and push Yathraj again. Mazur, this time, will not let go of his fist to win 21-15 and fall to the ground, at the end of the effort and with a proudly clenched fist. Here’s the Badminton Paralympic champion in singles, as he awaits, perhaps, a second mixed doubles title with Faustin Noel at SL3-SU5 from 5:15 a.m. French time.
