GB Nagar District Magistrate all set to represent India at Tokyo Paralympics

District magistrate (DM) of Gautam Budh Nagar Suhas L Y, who is also an international level para-badminton player, is all set to represent India in badminton at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games scheduled to be held between August 24 and September 5

District magistrate (DM) of Gautam Budh Nagar Suhas L Y, who is also an international level para-badminton player, is all set to represent India in badminton at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games scheduled to be held between August 24 and September 5. He will leave for Tokyo on August 28.

HT Image

Suhas will be seen in action from September 2 in the men’s singles Standing Lower 4 category---players in this class must play standing. Players in this class could have impairment (less than SL-3) in one or both lower limbs and minimal impairment in walking/running balance.

With his eyes set on the gold medal, the DM hopes that the country gets to see him play in the finals on September 5. “While I am preparing to give my best, I do not think about the past or future, winning or losing during the match. At that moment, I am playing to score that one point and take each set as it comes. I believe that it is not the preparation but how you perform during the match is all that counts,” said Suhas, who is a 2007 batch IAS from Uttar Pradesh cadre.

He took charge as the district magistrate of GB Nagar on March 31 last year. When asked how he finds time to train for competitions while being an administrative head of a district, he said, “I generally train for around two hours post 10pm after all my meetings and assessments of the day are over. For the Paralympics, I have been training at the Shaheed Vijay Pathik Sports Stadium in Greater Noida. This is not new for me as I have been training for competitions alongside my duties as an officer for six years now”.

From passing orders during the day to taking orders from his coach by evening, the district magistrate turns student at night to prepare for the competition.

Talking about his entry into international games as a badminton player, Suhas, who had an affliction in childhood that left him physically challenged, said he had been a public servant for nine years when he first thought of playing internationally.

“I was the Azamgarh DM in 2016 when a state badminton championship was being held there and I was invited to inaugurate it. As the event was on, I expressed my desire to have a playful match because I had been playing badminton as a hobby. However, I was able to defeat the state-level players there. That is when Gaurav Khanna, who is the current head coach of the Indian para-badminton team, spotted me and asked me to try playing professionally. At the time I refused but about four months later, I decided to give it a shot and went on to play Badminton Asia Championship in China the same year, and got a gold medal for India,” said Suhas.

The DM made history by becoming the world’s first unranked player to win a gold medal at the Asian Championship in Beijing in 2016. After this, Suhas went on a medal-winning spree at various international badminton competitions. He won gold at the BWF Turkish Open Para-Badminton Championship held in Turkey in 2017 and then again at Turkish Open Para-Badminton Championships in 2019. The last match that brought him a gold was the Brazil Para Badminton International Championships in Sao Paulo in February last year.

Sharing his experience as a specially-abled public officer and an international player, Suhas said his parents taught him to never be insecure of his shortcomings.

“Fortunately, I never faced any sort of discrimination because I have always tried to overcome my shortcomings by being the best in whatever I do. Up till Class 10, I was feted with the all-rounder award for being good in sports as well as academics. Later in the IAS academy too, I was given the honour of being an all-rounder. My parents always taught me that every person has one or the other shortcoming and that no one has it all. The only difference is someone’s shortcomings are visible physically, others’ might not,” said Suhas.

He added that playing badminton is a spiritual activity for him and he hopes to make his country proud in the Tokyo Paralympics.

This year’s Olympics challenging for players, says Deputy Chef de Mission

Meanwhile, India’s Deputy Chef de Mission Arhan Bagati, who is in Tokyo with the first and second batch of Paralympics contingent, said due to Covid-19, a year’s gap in holding Tokyo Paralympics became a challenge for the players.

“The players had been preparing for the Tokyo Paralympics since 2016. When Covid came, their training and preparations were disturbed. As a result, this year’s games are extremely challenging for each player,” said the 22-year-old, who is the youngest deputy CDF at the Tokyo Olympics.

Bagati said he expects the Indian players at the Paralympics to get over 10 medals, including four gold.