BHAVINA PATEL WON SILVER MEDAL FOR TABLE TENNIS IN TOKYO-2020 PARALYMPICS
New Delhi, August 29, 2021: Family members and friends of paddler Bhavina Patel broke into traditional ‘Garba’ dance, burst firecrackers and smeared each other with ‘gulal’ at her native Sundhiya village in Gujarat’s Mehsana district soon after she won a historic silver medal at the Paralympic Games in the women’s singles class 4 final in Tokyo on Sunday.
On Sunday, Bhavina became only the second Indian woman to win a medal at the Paralympics after she signed off with a historic silver following a 0-3 loss to world number one Chinese paddler Ying Zhou in the women’s singles table tennis class 4 final.
The 34-year-old Bhavina’s impressive run at the Games ended with a 7-11, 5-11, 6-11 loss to Zhou, a two-time gold medallist, in the women’s singles summit clash which lasted 19 minutes.
Bhavina wins #IND 1st Medal at #Tokyo2020 #Paralympics
Many congratulations to @Bhavina59068010 on winning🥈with her calm and brilliant performances 👏🏽
🇮🇳 is proud of you!#Cheer4India #Praise4Para@PMOIndia @ianuragthakur @NisithPramanik @ParalympicIndia @DeepaAthlete pic.twitter.com/028jz7XjGF
— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) August 29, 2021
“She may be ‘Divyang’ (differently-abled), but to us, she never appeared to be so. For us, she is ‘Divya’ (divine). We are very happy that she has brought a silver medal for our country,” her father Hasmukh Patel, told reporters after her victory.
Patel runs a small grocery shop in the village. People at Patel’s native village had set up a big screen to watch her match live from Tokyo. They started gathering in front of the screen early this morning as the game began.
Although Patel went down 0-3 to Zhou in the final of her maiden Paralympic Games, it did not dampen the celebration spirit. As soon as the game ended, people started dancing, burst crackers and threw ‘gulal’ on each other.
#WATCH Family members and friends of Para-paddler Bhavina Patel in Mehsana perform 'garba' to celebrate her bringing home a Silver medal in her maiden Paralympic Games pic.twitter.com/h55CAAycOG
— ANI (@ANI) August 29, 2021
Patel, who was diagnosed with polio when she was 12-month-old, had defeated world No. 3 Miao Zhang of China 7-11, 11-7, 11-4, 9-11, 11-8 in the semifinal showdown on Saturday.
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