Bhavinaben Patel on Friday scripted history by becoming the first Indian table tennis player to secure a medal in the Tokyo Paralympics, setting the tone for an upbeat contingent aiming for its best-ever finish at the Games.
Feeding off the momentum generated by India’s best showing at the preceding Olympics, Patel, competing in her maiden Paralympics, ensured a podium for herself by entering the semifinals with a stunning straight-game win over world number two and defending champion Borislava Peric Rankovic of Serbia in the women’s singles Class 4 event.
The 34-year-old, who was diagnosed with polio when she was 12, beat her Serbian opponent 11-5, 11-6, 11-7 in a quarterfinal match that lasted 18 minutes.
“I could win my match today due to the support of the people of India. Please keep supporting me so that I can win my semifinal match,” Patel said after the quarterfinal.
In the day’s other events, Indian 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.
The 2014 Commonwealth Games Bronze medallist Khatun 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 Championship winner Vivek Chikara finished in top-10.
Another Indian in fray, Shyam Sundar Swami finished a lowly 21st with 682 points. Both the Indians were seeded straight into the second round in the draw of 64.
World No 22 Jyoti Baliyan, who is the only Indian female member to have qualified for the Paralympics, secured a 15th place ranking in the compound open event.
The highlight of the day undoubtedly was Patel reaching the semifinals and grabbing a medal, the colour of which will be decided on Saturday.
She takes on Zhang Miao of China in the semifinals. There is no Bronze-medal play-off in Tokyo Paralympics table tennis, and both losing semi-finalists are guaranteed of a Bronze.
“It is sure that we can see a medal from her. Tomorrow morning’s match (semifinal) is a huge decider what colour of the medal she will win,” Paralympic Committee of India president Deepa Malik said in a video footage on her Twitter handle.