Paddler Bhavinaben Patel wins historic silver at Tokyo Paralympics

Indian table tennis player Bhavinaben Patel signed off with a historic silver medal in her maiden Paralymic Games after going down 03 to world number one Chinese paddler Ying Zhou in the womens singles class 4 final here on SundayThe 34yearold Patels impressive run at the Games ended with a 711 511 611 loss to Zhou a twotime gold medallist in the womens singles summit clash which lasted 19 minutesWith this medal Indian team opened its account at the GamesPatel a wheelchair player had also suffered a loss to Zhou one of the most decorated parapaddlers of China in her first group stage match earlier in the weekUp against an opponent who has five Paralympic medals to her name including gold medals in singles at Beijing and London Patel seemed to struggle as she couldnt execute her strategy and was left to do the catch up jobZhou a sixtime World Championship medallist didnt allow Patel currently ranked 12th in her division to find her angled returns and get into a rallyIn the first game Zhou broke off from 33 to move ahead Patel tried to keep herself within touching distance with a superb serve at 57 and a forehand flick but the Chinese managed to earn the bragging right with a deep push at the baselineAlso read Bhavinaben Patel I have proved that nothing is impossibleThe second game was a oneway traffic as Zhou jumped to a 71 lead early on Patel narrowed it down to 47 but the Chinese soon grabbed a 20 leadPushed to the brink Patel tried to script a recovery as she moved neck and neck with her opponent till 55 in the third game But Zhou once again moved ahead and sealed the contest with a backhand shotPatel who was diagnosed with polio when she was 12 months old had defeated world no 3 Miao Zhang of China 711 117 114 911 118 in the semifinal on SaturdayIn the quarterfinal on Friday Patel had defeated 2016 Rio Paralympics gold medallist and world number two Borislava Peric Rankovic of Serbia to assure herself a medal and script historyIn para table tennis classes 15 are for wheelchair athletes Athletes in Class 4 category have fair sitting balance and fully functional arms and hands Their impairment may be due to a lower spinalcord lesion or cerebral palsyPatel started playing the sport 13 years ago at the Blind Peoples Association at Vastrapur area of Ahmedabad where she was a student of ITI for people with disabilitiesThere she saw visually impaired children playing table tennis and decided to take up the sport She won her first medal in a competition while representing RotaryClub in Ahmedabad where she is settled now after her marriage to Nikunj Patel who has played junior cricket for GujaratShe reached world number two ranking in 2011 after winning a silver medal for India in PTT Thailand Table Tennis Championship In October 2013 Patel won another silver in the womens singles Class 4 at the Asian Para table tennis championships in BeijingMaharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray congratulated Patel saying her win truly marks the spirit of National Sports DayHeartfelt congratulations to BhavinaPatel6 for bringing home the Silver Truly marks the spirit of NationalSportsDay httpstco9ILf8lNBt5mdash Office of Uddhav Thackeray OfficeofUT August 29 2021This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever