Leani Ratri Oktila and Khalimatus Sadiyah secured the first gold medal for Indonesia at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics by winning the SL3-SU5 women’s doubles para-badminton final on Saturday night (Japan Standard Time).

They defeated China’s Cheng He Fang and Ma Hui Hui with a score of 21-18, 21-12 at the Yoyogi National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan.

It was a historic win for the world’s number one SL3-SU5 women’s doubles players as it was the first gold medal for the Indonesian contingent in the sporting event as well as for the para-badminton national team in their Paralympics debut.

Oktila and Sadiyah played casually in the first game while taking advantage of weaker shots from their opponents to make lucrative returns.

Meanwhile, the second game went tougher as they were left behind at the beginning of the game by three points at 4-7.

However, the persistence and cooperation of the Indonesian players paid off as they took over the game to score 11-9 at the interval.

After this juncture, they consistently maintained the lead and proved unstoppable. They continued to accumulate points to increase the scoring gap.

Finally, after 32 minutes of play, Oktila and Sadiyah became the first Indonesian SL3-SU5 women’s doubles players to win a gold medal at the biggest multi-sports event in the world. Meanwhile, in the match for the third place in the women’s doubles competition, Japan’s Noriko Ito and Ayako Suzuki defeated France’s Lenaig Morin and Faustine Noel with a score of 21-16, 21-18.

With Oktila and Sadiyah’s win, Indonesia got its sixth medal at the event. Earlier, Indonesia had won two silver and three bronze medals.

The two silvers were bagged by Ni Nengah Widiasih in the 41-kg class women’s powerlifting event and Dheva Anrimusthi in the SU5 men’s singles badminton competition.

Meanwhile, men’s T37 100 m running athlete Saptoyoga Purnomo, men’s individual class 10 table tennis athlete David Jacobs, and SU5 men’s single badminton player Suryo Nugroho had pocketed one bronze each.

Source: Antara News