Bethell and Coombs earn badminton silvers

Krysten Coombs was delighted to upgrade his men’s singles bronze to silver in the Para badminton at Paris 2024. 

The 33-year-old lost to home favourite and close friend Charles Noakes in the SH6 men’s singles final 21-19 21-13. 

Against a raucous French crowd, with pockets of British support, Coombs did his best to savour the occasion with Charles also recognising his opponent’s performance among jubilant post-match celebrations. 

“It was amazing,” the Totnes native said. “It obviously wasn’t the result I’d have wanted but to be out there with that crowd was incredible.  

“We don’t have that in other para badminton tournaments so to be able to experience that was amazing. Near the end, I had to take it all in. 

“It’s the dream. The hard work, the dedication, the years of sacrifices, not being able to do things with friends and family – to have them here tops it off.  

“To have the support of ParalympicsGB and everyone at home, there’s a lot of people behind the scenes who push it through, from UK Sport and The National Lottery which allows me to be here and be in this atmosphere.  

“If people didn’t do the Lottery at home, we wouldn’t have this experience.” 

Coombs, who won bronze in Tokyo, had built a decent lead in the opening exchanges of the first game but buoyed by a home crowd, Noakes was never going to be quiet for long. 

He levelled the match at 11-11 just after Coombs had taken a brief medical timeout before taking the lead for the first time three points later. 

A three-point gap opened up for the Frenchman but Coombs responded in like and it looked as if it would go point for point for a while before Noakes brought up three game points. 

Coombs saved two but could not prevent the third from being converted as the momentum switched to Noakes. 

From there, the Frenchman was comfortable in the second game, with Coombs able to play attacking, fun badminton as he stalled the party, but only did so temporarily. 

He added: “I came out to play my best badminton and see what happened. The dream was to win that gold but it wasn’t to be. 

“There was a momentum swing, he got that little edge and that’s badminton, that’s what happens. I struggled a little bit to come back out in the second set but I gave it my all. 

“We are good friends on and off court, we try and socialise as much as we can. That’s what I love about para badminton, there are so many friendships.  

“To share this moment with him was just incredible.”

His compatriot Dan Bethell won a medal of the same colour, matching his performance in Tokyo.

The Brit fell to Kumar Nitesh of India 21-14, 18-21, 23-21 in an enthralling 80 minutes on the badminton court to clinch his second silver in as many Paralympic appearances.

Bethell lost out on gold to India’s Pramod Baghat three years ago in Tokyo and had made it crystal clear that his only ambition was gold in Paris.

But the Bath native was made to re-live second place after Nitesh clinched his first victory in ten tries over Bethell.

“It feels devastating,” said Bethell. “I came here for that gold. I got the silver in Tokyo and it was my ambition from the start to go one better but I just couldn’t get it over the line today.

“I never like losing, particularly in a Paralympics when I’ve already gone through losing a Paralympic final.

“I’ve got to take some pride at getting through to the final as a lot of athletes dream of it and to get on that podium but at the moment I’m just completely devastated that I’ll be on the second step.”

The rallies were long and they were momentous, with the La Chapelle Arena on the edge of their seats as the longest of the match soared to an incredible 122 shots before Nitesh eventually took the point.

Bethell soon started to push ahead to a 7-5 lead but Nitesh pulled him back and stormed to a brilliant six-point advantage to take the first set 21-14.

With a few unforced errors being capitalised on by Nitesh, Bethell looked unable to make an indent in the first seed’s stride as he fell behind once more in the second.

But with the clock running out, he refused to go down without a fight and a late surge in the second set saw him overcome a four-point deficit and roar back into contention and take the set, thanking his family for giving him the push he needed.

“It felt amazing being in there with the atmosphere,” he said. “Having my friends and family there compared to Tokyo was brilliant and they really helped me get back into the match when I was that far down.

“Half court singles is the marathon event of Paralympic para badminton as there isn’t a lot of room to hit winning shots so that was the key thing.

“My coaches, credit to them, recognised that the game plan wasn’t working and were telling me the whole way through but I couldn’t execute it the way I needed to.”

With all to play for, Nitesh once again led in the third set before Bethell reeled him in to even the score.

And it went all the way down to a battle for one match point, with the duo going back and forth before Nitesh finally got over the line and took the gold.

And after having been just one point away from victory in Paris, Bethell admitted that it all came down to a mental game on the day.

“You can do a lot of training and do some psychology work but nothing can prepare you for that and to have that gold medal point,” he said.

“It’s a surreal experience to go through and the only way to get better at it is to experience it. It’s a shame I couldn’t convert the one I had. I was just trying to keep myself focussed as at the end it was all mental.”