SportsPara sport
Bhavina, Suhas and Krishna Nagar win openers as India start Asian Para Games
India's paddlers won all four of their singles matches in Nagoya on Friday, and Suhas Yathiraj dropped only 19 points in his first badminton group match, two days before the opening ceremony.
Key points
- Bhavina Patel beat Kuwait's Ahad Alrasheedi 11-6, 11-3, 11-6 in her first group match.
- Suhas Yathiraj opened his SL4 campaign with a 21-8, 21-11 win over Bangladesh's Joytu Dhar.
- The Games formally open with the ceremony on 18 October.
India’s para table tennis players made a clean start at the Asian Para Games in Nagoya on Friday, winning all four of their singles group matches two days before the Games are formally opened.
Bhavina Patel, the Tokyo Paralympics silver medallist who will carry India’s flag at Sunday’s opening ceremony with Pramod Bhagat, beat Kuwait’s Ahad Alrasheedi 11-6, 11-3, 11-6 in women’s singles Class 4-5 Group A.
Baby Sahana Ravi was just as quick in women’s Class 9 Group B, beating Vietnam’s Thi Hoa Phuong Nguyen 11-6, 11-5, 11-4. Shubham Wadhwa beat Nepal’s Keshav Thapa 11-6, 11-4, 11-9 in men’s Class 3. In men’s Class 1, the class for players with the most severe impairments who compete seated, Jehan Madan beat fellow Indian Sandeep Dangi 11-8, 12-10, 10-12, 11-6.
Suhas starts in control
On the badminton court, Suhas Yathiraj, a two-time Paralympic silver medallist and the champion at the last Asian Para Games, needed only two games to beat Bangladesh’s Joytu Dhar 21-8, 21-11 in men’s singles SL4 Group E.
Abhijeet Sakhuja also won his SL4 opener, beating Chinese Taipei’s En-chuan Yeh 21-17, 21-12. Krishna Nagar, the Tokyo Paralympics champion, began his men’s singles SH6 Group C campaign with a win, taking the first game 21-5.
India have sent 168 athletes across 11 sports to the Games, which run until 24 October.