Tokyo Paralympics: India’s Bhavinaben Patel brings home historic silver

Indian Para table tennis player Bhavinaben Patel scripted history on Sunday as she won silver medal at Tokyo Paralympics.

This is the first medal for India at the current Paralympics.
Patel lost to China’s Zhou Ying in Women’s Single’s class 4 final.

Patel’s impressive run at the Games ended with a 7-11, 5-11, 6-11 loss to Zhou, who is a two-time gold medallist. The summit clash lasted 19 minutes.

The Indian paddler had earlier reached the final by defeating world no. 3 China’s Miao Zhang 7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 9-11, 11-8 on Saturday.

Patel participated in the Paralympics for the first time and lost the first game in a fierce competition. However, she recovered well and won the next two games.

Bhavinaben had entered 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.