Hary/Leani Win Second Gold For Indonesia At Tokyo Paralympics

JAKARTA - A proud result was achieved by the SL3-SU5 mixed doubles badminton players, Hary Susanto/Leani Ratri Oktila after successfully winning the second gold medal for the Indonesian contingent at the Tokyo Paralympics event, Sunday, September 5.

As reported by Antara, the victory on the highest podium was achieved by Hary/Leani after going through a difficult struggle against French mixed doubles Lucas Mazur/Faustine Noel in the final round which ended with a score of 23-21, 21-17.

A tight strategy battle takes place as soon as the first game starts. The number one pair initially took the lead, but fell 8-11 behind in the early interval.

Competition is still going on in the second interval. Hary/Leani who trailed 12-17 were able to collect points one by one to compensate for the opponent.

Indonesia regained control with a score of 19-17, but the second-ranked mixed doubles from France again overshadowed and equalized the score at 19-19.

When Indonesia won 22-21, Ratri served, which was immediately grabbed by Mazur. Luckily, Mazur's hasty return sent the ball too low and hit the net.

As a result of that mistake, Hary/Leani also secured the first game with a thin score of 23-22 after 17 minutes of struggling.

The second game was no less exciting by showing the tough competition from the two partners again.

Both Hary/Leani and Mazur/Noel chased each other's points one by one, points were won alternately for the two pairs who have met seven times in the arena of this para-badminton competition.

The tension in the match was getting closer to match point, Hary/Leani, who were already leading 18-16, were still being chased by their opponents.

However, Mazur/Noel could only add one point, while Hary/Leani accelerated the tempo of the game and succeeded in realizing the victory with an additional three points.

This victory led Indonesia to the acquisition of two gold medals at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, all of which were won through the role of Ratri who was nicknamed "Queen of Para-badminton".

On Saturday, Ratri donated the inaugural gold medal for the Indonesian national team through the women's doubles sector SL3-SU5 paired with Khalimatus Sadiyah.

On Sunday morning's match session, Ratri also secured a silver medal in the SL4 women's singles number, after being defeated by Cheng He Fang from China.