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Tears of joy! Krysten Coombs takes Paralympic bronze in Tokyo (credit ParaBadmintonPhoto)
Coombs rallies to take bronze
Date: 9/5/2021 9:47 AM
Published by : Bobby Griffin (BEC)

Krysten Coombs fought back after a poor start to take Paralympic bronze in the SH6 men’s singles this afternoon


It was easy to see the emotion on Coombs’s face, even before the match started today. The hand’s were shaking and his shots early on were nervous, which allowed Vitor Tavares (BRA) to take control of game one 21-12


It was a huge turnaround in game two as Team GB’s world number five grew in confidence after some excellent rallies. He had a 11-4 lead at the interval and kept pushing on to a 21-10 game score. It was clear that this match was far from over.


The 30-yr-old started on the bad-end in the third and managed to find strength and power to pressure Tavares who was forced into errors, giving Coombs the advantage at the turn-around. There was no let-up from the Englishman as he powered to the finish line 21-16 and collected Paralympics GB's last medal of the entire Tokyo 2020 Games.


The achievement has provided him with an upgrade to First Class on the British Airways flight home to Heathrow tomorrow we hear! He had this to say after the match:


-It's what I've been wanting, what I've been training for. I've dedicated my life to it and to be able to come away with a Paralympic medal is a dream come true.


Read: Paralympic Gold for Mazur



A silver medal in the mixed doubles


Europe’s last hope for another gold medal saw Lucas Mazur back in action to add to his SL4 men’s singles title, this time with partner Faustine Noel in the SL3-SU5 gold medal match. Their opponent won’t be a surprise, the World Champions Hary Susanto and Leani Oktila.


And what a fight it was, the entire match was played at such a high standard and it was hard to say until right at the end who the winners were going to be. It was a terrific end to an amazing experience had in Tokyo and a fitting finish to Para badminton’s inaugural Paralympics.


The Indonesian’s took the gold 23-21, 21-17 which adds to Leani Oktila’s gold in the women’s doubles and silver in the women’s singles – a truly incredible performance from the 30 year old from Pekanbaru.


The French pair were talking passionately after the match:


- It's a great experience. We were looking for this, we came for this. This is our first mixed doubles medal at the Paralympics. We didn't get one at the world championships – Mazur


It was Lucas Mazur who found Faustine Noel and encouraged her to try Para badminton: 


- It's a nice story because he was looking at me and pushed me to come here, to go to international competitions. So, thanks to him for bringing me here and I'm so happy to share a medal with him - Noel


Mazur adds silver to the gold he had already earned and Europe total four medals from the Paralympic Games:


Lucas Mazur (FRA) – SL4 men’s singles GOLD

Daniel Bethell (Team GB) – SL3 men’s singles SILVER

Lucas Mazur & Faustine Noel (FRA) – SL3-SU5 mixed doubles SILVER

Krysten Coombs (Team GB) – SH6 men’s singles BRONZE



The Paralympic badminton schedule and results can be found here, with BWF Live Blog for news and images here

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