After welcome at Azamgarh, DM Suhas to receive Yash Bharti

VARANASI: Shuttler Suhas LY’s winning streak isn’t over yet. After winning a gold medal at the Asian Paralympic Championship, Suhas will now receive UP government’s highest honour, the Yash Bharti, from chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday. Suhas will be felicitated following trial run of the Lucknow Metro, along with other Yash Bharti awardees Rameshwar Misra and Abbas Raza Haider.Actor Naseeuddin Shah, who had been named in the government’s list of 74 awardees in October, is also tipped to attend the event and collect his award on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Suhas returned to a hero’s welcome with celebrations on the roads in Azamgarh on Wednesday. Hundreds of men, women and children came out on the the streets to accord a rousing welcome not to a film star, politician or celebrity sports star, but to their champion district magistrate Suhas LY, who returned after winning a gold medal in the Asian Para-Badminton held in Beijing, China.
Enthused by the overwhelming welcome, Suhas has now fixed his next target of playing the World Para-Badminton championship in South Korea in 2017 and Tokyo Paralympic in 2020.
On Sunday morning, Suhas had defeated Hare Sushanto of Indonesia to win the gold medal of the Asian Para-Badminton championship. After returning to India, he first visited Lucknow on Tuesday to meet chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and then reached Azamgarh late evening, when hundreds of people turned up to felicitate him at the Ataraulia dak bungalow.
On Wednesday morning, people of Azamgarh put up a grand show to honour him publicly. The road show started from Belaisa Crossing, where Suhas and his wife Ritu boarded an open jeep that was followed by a huge crowd.
Schoolchildren formed human chains along the road, while different social and voluntary organisations garlanded him at crossings. After passing through Civil Lines and other city localities, the road show culminated at Sukhdev Pahalwan Stadium, where an enthused Suhas shared his feelings with the people and also thanked them for the grand welcome.
A 2007 batch IAS, Suhas had problem with his leg since childhood but that did not come in his way to becoming a champion. “I loved playing badminton since childhood. I also won medals in the academy and at various tournament for officers. But I got serious about the game seven years back, with the dream to take part in an international event. The Asian Para-Badminton championship at Beijing was my first international event as professional shuttler,” said Suhas, while talking to TOI.
Few in Azamgarh knew that Suhas had gone to Beijing to take part in Asian Para-Badminton championships held from November 22 to 27. Except for his coach and a woman player from Lucknow, no one in the 22-member Indian squad at Beijing knew that Suhas was in the Indian administrative Service and is currently Azamgarh DM.
Suhas said, “As I had no world ranking, I had to play one extra match and one pre-quarter final. I played a total of seven matches in six days to win the gold.” He plays in the SN-4 category of Para-Badminton events, which has rules like normal badminton tournaments. He is happy that now he will get a world ranking that will help in reducing the number of matches he needs to play in future international events. He said, “Now I will prepare for the World Para-Badminton championship at Tokyo next year and also for the Tokyo Paralympics in 2020.”