As Lachan Cowper watched the shuttle fall out beside him, the crowd erupted into applause. His teammates, his past and future opponents, everyone cheered while he shook hands with his opponent, Chinese Taipei’s Shiau-Wei Dung at the YONEX Australian Para Badminton International 2025.
“It was genuinely lovely to see everyone supporting me,” Cowper said. “I’m just thankful that they’re here.”
Fresh off his gold medal at the VICTOR Oceania Para Badminton Championships, the Australian found himself trailing after the first game in his WH1 singles match, but stayed composed and tightened his play to come back into contention.
“I made so many mistakes in the first one–he didn’t win it, I lost it. So, I was just trying to minimise my mistakes and keep it in,” he added.
His tactic worked, and after 42 minutes, Cowper rolled off the court a winner. Final score: 11-21, 21-18, 21-13.
Elsewhere in the stadium, Mathieu Thomas played alongside compatriot Guillaume Gailly (FRA). Against second seeds Deep Ranjan Bisoyee/Manoj Sarkar (IND), they played in the MD SL3-SL4. The match originally looked like an open-and-close situation, with the Indian duo completely dominating the first game. The French pair worked hard to get themselves into the match in the second game and forced a third, but despite their hard-fought effort, they could not chase down their opposition’s shots and went down 219-8, 21-19, 15-21.
That defeat was the third tough match for Thomas today, who had to take on both the 2020 Paralympic Champion Pramod Bhagat (IND) and the second seed, Umesh Vikram Kumar (IND), in the MS SL3 earlier in the day.
While he couldn’t quite uproot Bhagat, Thomas stormed to an early lead against Kumar.
Thomas and Kumar are no strangers. They faced each other earlier this year in the quarterfinal of the British & Irish Para Badminton International 2025. Over three games, Kumar bested the French player to force him out of July’s competition.
It almost felt like deja vu when Kumar tied the score to force a third today. Yet, determined not to let history repeat itself, Thomas held off Kumar to sneak away with the win 21-17, 10-21, 21-18.
Another Australian had a fantastic day on the court. Macka Mackenzie secured her first singles match win at an International against Thomas Leighs (NZL) in a three-game thriller. After 38 minutes, she hit the winning shot to take a 16-21, 21-15, 21-11 victory.
Vanuatu’s Jacklynda Molidu continued to turn heads. After earning a bronze medal last week in the SH6 WS, she was back on court today against Harriet Georgeson-Brown (AUS). Georgeson-Brown is one of the youngest players of the tournament, at 13 years of age; however, she is quickly proving herself on the regional circuit. Nevertheless, in just her second badminton tournament, Molidu took control of the game, pushing to a 21-13, 21-10 win with a fire and drive that was palpable from the sidelines.
