Abhinav Bindra lauds Bhavina Patel's historic run: 'Silver medal doesn't tell whole story'

Soon after India's para table tennis player Bhavina Patel secured a silver medal at the Tokyo Paralympics on Sunday, politicians, sportsmen and Bollywood stars took to social media to praise her magnificent performance at the multi-sports event. It is worth mentioning that Zhou Ying of China overwhelmed Bhavina Patel in straight sets by 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 11-6) in the gold medal match. With this silver medal, Bhavina became the first medal winner for India in table tennis. Olympics Gold Medallist Abhinav Bindra, who had secured a gold medal in shooting at the 2008 Summer Olympics, also took to Twitter to congratulate Bhavina Patel for winning silver in the women's singles.

Bindra found Twitter 280 characters limit inefficient to praise the glory of Patel

As the microblogging site does not offer to pen down his entire feeling and the glory that she made, Bindra uploaded a one-page letter addressed to the first Indian para-paddler to win a medal in Paralympics history. In the letter, Bindra praised her presence of mind and applauded the skill and mental resilience that she had maintained throughout the match. "Many congratulations for delivering outstanding performance to win a Silver medal, and becoming India's first medalist at the Tokyo Paralympics 2020. The whole nation is extremely proud of you for overcoming all challenges and coming up with such a spirited show in Tokyo," Abhinav wrote in the letter addressed to the silver medalist.

"Despite losing your first match, the spirit and attitude with which you fought for every point in the next three matches, and defeated higher-ranked opponents was extremely pleasing to witness - both as a fan and as an athlete. Your performance exemplified the redeeming quality of the sport, while also serving as a perfect advertisement for the powers of mental resilience and unwavering belief," Bindra said. 

Bindra said the silver medal that she secured during the match would be remembered as one of the defining moments of her career. However, he added that the recent glory is not efficient to narrate the whole story of Patel. Bindra, in 2008, made the country proud by striking India's first-ever individual gold medal at the Beijing Olympics. He had shot an overall score of (596+140.5) 700.5 in the thrilling finale which went right down to the last shot. Also, it is worth noting Bhavina became the first table tennis player ever to win a medal at the Paralympics for India and the second female athlete after the current President of the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI), Deepa Malik, to achieve the feat. She had won a silver medal at Rio 2016 in women's shot put. 

(Image Credit: @Abhinav_Bindra/Rahul Gandhi Twitter)