Tokyo Paralympics 2020: Paddlers Sonal & Bhavina Patel face defeat at group games

Sonal Patel lost her first group stage Tokyo Paralympics 2020 Women’s Singles Class 3 category match on Wednesday. She went down to China's Q Li 2-3 in what was a thrilling contest. However, what really stood out here is that the Indian para paddler did not go down without a fight.

Tokyo Paralympics 2020: Sonal Patel loses after giving a tough fight

Sonal Patel nearly pulled off a stunning winning during her Tokyo Olympics 2020 women’s singles Class 3 Group D clash against  Q Li. In fact, she got off to a brilliant start where she took the first game 11-9 in just six minutes. Nonetheless, her Chinese counterpart who is also the Rio Olympics silver medallist staged a remarkable comeback and convincingly won the second game 11-3. 

The third set turned out to be an edge-of-the-seat thriller as Sonal won it by a 17-15 margin. Sonal Patel then could not offer much resistance in the next two sets as Q Li, who clinched gold at the 2008 Beijing Games emerged triumphant by taking the final two sets  11-7 &  11-4  respectively.

Sonal will play her next group match on Thursday and will be facing South Korea’s Mi Gyu Lee.

Meanwhile, Sonal Patel's compatriot Bhavina Patel also lost her Tokyo Paralympics 2020 women's singles class 4 category match 0-3. After going down in the first game, Bhavinaben Patel tried her level best to stage a comeback in the second game picking up three consecutive points but to no avail, as Zhou Ying showcased an outstanding performance and never allowed the Indian paddler to dominate thereafter.

Bhavina Patel would now be looking to make amends in her next group match against Great Britain's  M. Shackleton on Thursday.

World no.8 Bhavinaben Hasmukhbhai Patel is a very accomplished para-athlete and boasts of having won multiple championships. In her 13-year career so far, the paddler has competed in 28 tournaments and has won 26 of them. They include five gold, 13 silver, and, eight bronze medals respectively. 

Indian contingent at Paralympics 2020

 India will be represented by 54 para-athletes across nine sports events- archery, para canoeing, athletics, shooting, table tennis, swimming, badminton, powerlifting, and taekwondo. The 2020 contingent is the biggest ever contingent in the history of the Games. Javelin thrower Tek Chand was India's flag-bearer at the opening ceremony replacing Thangavelu Mariyappan after the latter was quarantined, as he came in close contact with a covid positive foreign passenger.

Meanwhile, Deepak Malik, who had clinched a silver in the 2016 edition of the Rio Paralympics gave special mention to both the TT players on social media.