Dan Bethell was forced to settle for Paralympic silver in a familiar heart-breaking tale of always the bridesmaid and never the bride.

The Huntingdon-born Paralympian 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 he was made to re-live second place after Nitesh clinched his first victory in ten tries over Bethell in the moment that mattered.

"It feels devastating," he said. "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."

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.

It seemed that Bethell was down and out from there, with a few unforced errors being capitalised on by Nitesh, and the Brit fell behind once more.

But with the clock running out, Bethell refused to go down without a fight and saw a late surge in the second set overcome a four-point deficit and roar back into the lead.

He eventually took the set 21-18 and thanked his family for giving him the push he needed.

"It felt amazing being in there with the atmosphere," he said, who is one of over 1,000 elite athletes on UK Sport’s National Lottery-funded World Class Programme, allowing them to train full time, have access to the world’s best coaches and benefit from pioneering medical support – which has been vital on their pathway to the Paris 2024 Games. 

"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."

With all to play for, Nitesh once against 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 on the end it was all mental."

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