PANAJI: India’s para-paddlers Sonal Patel and Bhavina Patel went down in their opening matches at Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
Sonal fought till the very end as she lost to China’s Qian Li 11-9, 3-11, 17-15, 7-11, 4-11 in a thrilling match in Class 3 category. Qian had won gold medal in Beijing and silver at Rio 2016.
Later in the morning, Bhavina suffered a 11-3, 11-9, 11-2 loss against Zhou Ying of China in Class 4 category.
Deepa Malik, Rio 2016 Paralympic silver medallist and president of Paralympic Committee of India, hailed Sonal’s fighting spirit.
“Sonal gave a tough fight… pitched against a Chinese player to pull it to a 2-2 draw and then just give in by a few points. To have five game sets to play in severe disability is stunningly satisfying performance. This match gives her the confidence that she needed @Tokyo2020,” she tweeted.
