The special one: Paddler Bhavinaben beats reigning champion, assures India first medal at Tokyo Paralympic Games

Vinayak Padmadeo

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 27

Bhavinaben Patel’s husband Nikunj rushed past the barricades to hug his wife. The couple were in tears. It was a moment to celebrate as Bhavina created history by becoming the first Indian to make the cut for the semifinals of the Paralympic Games table tennis competition and also confirming a medal for India in Tokyo.

Nikunj had spent a fortune in the last two years to help Bhavina achieve her dream of winning a medal at the Paralympics and after her 18-minute demolition of the defending champion and veteran Borislava Peric of Serbia 11-5 11-6 11-7 in the women’s singles quarterfinals of the Class 4 category, emotions overflowed.

“She hid her tears behind the Tricolour, I shed a few as well,” Nikunj told The Tribune on Friday.

The Ahmedabad couple spend a lot of time in training at Blind People’s Association’s training venue in Ahmedabad’s Vastrapur locality. While her training was being well looked at, the couple felt the need to make their house at KK Nagar in Ghatlodiya, Ahmedabad, wheelchair accessible.

“A one-year delay helped us a lot,” Nikunj explained. “We had already started the work to make our house accessible for her before the first lockdown. Thankfully the entire house is accessible to her now. We also have a dedicated room for her to practice.”

For the 34-year-old Bhavina, the job is only half done. After opening India’s account, the wheelchair-bound paddler has set her sights on entering the final.

“I just wanted to thank everybody for their wishes. I wish that all of you pray that I do well in my semifinal match as well,” she said.

Paralympics Committee of India president and Rio Games silver medallist Deepa Malik hailed Bhavina’s win saying she is expecting bigger things from the paddler.

“Bhavina and Sakina make us so proud… we want to see a brighter shade of the medal…. we are so proud of you,” Malik wrote on Twitter.

Powerlifter Khatun ends a notable fifth

In the other events, India powerlifter Sakina Khatun finished a creditable fifth in the women’s 50kg category, while compatriot Jaideep failed to log a single legal lift in the men’s 65kg event. Khatun, the 2014 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, had the best effort of 93kg. In archery, Indian compound archer Rakesh Kumar shot a career-best 699 points out of a possible 720 to grab the third place in the ranking round of the men’s open section. In the men’s recurve open category, 2019 Asian Para Championships winner Vivek Chikara finished in top-10. World No. 11 Kumar narrowly missed out the second spot to Iranian Ramezan Biabani who also totalled 699 but was placed higher than the Indian for shooting more arrows closest to the centre (X). World No. 22 Jyoti Baliyan, who is the only Indian female member to have qualified for the Games, secured a 15th place ranking in the compound open event. PTI

Tokyo paralympics highlights

Chinese have a ball

The Chinese wheelchair fencing team claimed two more medals in the Tokyo 2020 team epee events at the Makuhari Messe. While the women beat Ukraine easily 40-17 and claimed gold, the men’s squad lost in a tight battle against the Russian Paralympic Committee 45-39.

The throwing queen

Tunisia’s Raoua Tlili showed why she is the Paralympic Games throwing queen by landing a fourth shot put gold medal in a row on opening day of Para athletics. Brazil and China took two gold medals each at the National Olympic Stadium with also topping the podium in the morning session. F41 thrower Tlili was never in danger of seeing her 13-year domination ended after she broke her world record with a mighty effort of 10.55m in the second round. “There is lots of work behind it,” Tlili, who will attempt to repeat her shot put/discus double from Rio 2016, said of the secret of her success.

Javelin WR broken

Jose Gregorio Lemos began his quest for a hat-trick of golds with a world record throw of 60.31m in the men’s javelin F38. The Colombian also goes for glory in the 100m and long jump T38. His compatriot Luis Lucumi Villegas added a bronze to Colombia in the event (54.63m) with Ukraine’s Vladyslav Bilyi between the two for silver (55.34m, European record).

Xia wins 100M gold

Zhou Xia of China claimed gold in the women’s 100m T35 thriller at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games here on Friday as she set a new world record of 13.00 seconds. Previous world record holder Isis Holt of Australia finished second, 0.13 seconds

shy of the title, while Maria Lyle of Britain bagged bronze. “I’m super excited,” the newly crowned champion said after winning the first gold medal in athletics for China at the Tokyo Paralympics. “I didn’t expect myself to be this fast.”

HOME SWEET HOME

Tomoki Sato carried the hopes of the host nation on the first day of Para athletics and he did not disappoint. The five-time world champion won Japan’s first gold medal at the National Stadium in the men’s 400m T52. Sato stormed to victory in 55.39 to set a Paralympic record. Day one also saw Brazil’s Petrucio Ferreira blast to victory in the men’s 100m T47 to successfully defend his Paralympic Games title. Agencies