Tokyo paralympics: After a poor show, Indians get themselves together

Tokyo, September 2

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World No. 1 Pramod Bhagat sailed into the men’s singles semifinals after beating Ukraine’s Oleksandr Chyrkov in his second Group A match of the Tokyo Paralympics badminton event here today as the country’s shuttlers expectedly produced strong performances.

The 33-year-old Bhagat, also the reigning world champion, saw off Chyrkov 21-12 21-9 in 26 minutes to top his group and enter the semifinals in the SL3 category.

Other Indian shuttlers, including Suhas Yathiraj, Tarun Dhillon and Krishna Nagar, also had a good day in office as they opened their men’s singles campaign impressively.

While Suhas and Tarun notched up easy victories over Germany’s Jan Niklas Pott and Thailand’s Siripong Teamarrom in SL4 class, respectively, second seed Krishna outwitted Malaysia’s Taresoh Didin in SH6 class.

Young Palak also overcame Turkey’s Zehra Baglar in her second women’s singles match of Group A.

The 38-year-old Suhas took just 19 minutes to see off Pott 21-9 21-3 in a lopsided Group A clash, while Tarun, 27, too didn’t break a sweat, beating Teamarrom 21-7 21-13 in a Group B match that lasted 23 minutes. Krishna then prevailed 22-20 21-10 over Didin in a 33-minute Group B match.

In women’s singles SU5 class, Kohli beat Zehra 21-12 21-18 in 27 minutes. She had lost her opening match to Japan’s Ayako Suzuki.

Earlier in the day, the 19-year-old Kohli and her partner Parul Parmar, 48, went down 7-21 5-21 to second seeded Chinese pair of Cheng Hefang and Ma Huihui in a Group B women’s doubles SL3-SU5 class match.

Arvind ends 7th in shot put

Arvind ended seventh in the men’s shot put F35 event. Making his debut at the Games, the 28-year-old’s best effort was a 13.48m throw in the eight-strong field.

The gold medal went to Uzbekistan’s Khusniddin Norbekov, who produced a season’s best effort of 16.13m. Argentina’s Emanuel Urra claimed the silver with a 15.90m throw, while the bronze went to China’s Fu Xinhan (15.41m, season’s best).

Medal hopes on for Aruna

Aruna Tanwar lost to fourth-seeded Espinoza Carranza of Peru in the women’s taekwondo K44-49kg quarterfinals but remained in the hunt for a medal by making the repechage round.

Aruna, seeded 12th, was no match for her Peruvian opponent as she lost the bout 84-21. She will face Azerbaijan’s 10th seed Royala Fataliyeva in the repechage quarters later this evening.

Meanwhile, Prachi Yadav qualified for the semifinals of canoe sprint event in women’s Va’a single 200m. The 26-year-old recorded a time of one minute, 11.098 seconds. — PTI

Afghan Paralympian debuts after secret evacuation

Afghanistan’s Zakia Khudadadi competed in the today, becoming the first woman from her country to do so since Athens 2004, after a secret international effort to help the taekwondo athlete get out of Taliban-controlled Kabul. The 22-year-old and her compatriot Hossain Rasouli arrived in Tokyo on Saturday via Paris after Khudadadi made a video appeal for help to leave the Afghan capital after the Taliban swept to power. On Thursday, Khudadadi entered the Makuhari Messe competition arena in Chiba wearing a white hijab for the opening match of the combat sport’s Paralympics debut. She became only the second woman to compete for Afghanistan at the Paralympics, which began in 1960. Khudadadi did not speak to reporters after her two matches, both of which she lost. Rasouli competed in the men’s long jump on Tuesday.