Paris, Sep 2 (IANS): India's Manisha Ramadass won her maiden bronze medal in the Paralympic Games here, defeating Denmark’s Cathrine Rosengren 2-0 (21-12, 21-8) in the third-place match in the Women's Singles SU5 category. Her victory ensured that India had a double podium finish with compatriot Thulasimathi Murugesan bagging the silver medal, taking India’s tally at the Paralympics to 11.
Manisha’s dominance started in the first game. Despite her Danish opponent hanging close, Manisha built a sizable lead and took advantage to win the first game 21-12, going up 1-0 in 13 minutes.
Cathrine started the second game with positive intent and went 3-0 up against Manisha before the Indian flipped the switch and went on to take a 10-5 lead. The Dane never managed to recover after going behind in the second game and went on to lose consecutive points which took the game away from her. Manisha ended the game with a score of 21-8 which capped off a solid victory for her.
Manisha’s 0-2 (21-23, 17-21) loss against No.1 seed Thulasimathi in the semifinal saw her fall out of gold medal contention and find herself in the battle for third place.
The 19-year-old defeated Japan’s Mamiko Toyoda 2-0 (21-13, 21-16) in the quarterfinals after finishing second in Group C. Her only loss in the Group Stage came against eventual finalist Qiuxia Yang. Her opponent’s path to the bronze medal saw her top Group B after defeating Japanese duo Kaede Kameyama and Mamiko Toyoda, both of whom she defeated 2-0, to set a quarterfinal clash against Portuguese para-shuttler Beatriz Monteiro 2-0 (21-19, 21-10).
Her only defeat at the event came against China’s Qiuxia Yang in the semifinals which she lost in straight games.
In the SU5 category, the players have impairment of the upper limbs. The impairment could be on the playing or non-playing hand.
Manisha had won gold in the women's SU5 singles at the 2022 World Championships in Tokyo which saw her being named Female Para Badminton Player of the Year for 2022 by the Badminton World Federation.