SportsPara sport
Baby Sahana Ravi makes history as India's para paddlers win four bronzes
Bhavina Patel, Sonalben Patel, Prachi Pandey and Baby Sahana Ravi all lost semi-finals to settle for bronze in Nagoya, with China again the main obstacle.
Key points
- Baby Sahana Ravi won India's first standing-category para table tennis medal at the Asian Para Games.
- Bhavina Patel lost 3-0 to China's Zhang Bian in the class 4-5 semi-final.
- All four Indian semi-finalists in the women's singles took bronze.
India’s women para table tennis players came away from Nagoya with four bronze medals on Tuesday, and one of them made history. Baby Sahana Ravi’s bronze in the women’s singles class 9 was India’s first ever medal in the standing category of para table tennis at the Asian Para Games.
All four reached the semi-finals and all four lost there, three of them to Chinese or Korean opponents, without taking a game.
Bhavina Patel, the Tokyo Paralympics silver medallist, was beaten 11-7, 11-5, 11-7 by China’s Zhang Bian in the class 4-5 semi-final. Sonalben Patel went down 11-7, 11-5, 11-6 to South Korea’s Yoon Jiyu in class 3.
Baby Sahana lost 11-8, 11-2, 11-4 to China’s Mao Jingdian, and Prachi Pandey was beaten 11-9, 11-2, 11-8 by Iraq’s Najlah Al-Dayyeni in class 6.
In para table tennis, losing semi-finalists both receive bronze, so the four results still added four medals to India’s tally on a busy morning that also brought Deepthi Jeevanji’s 400m gold and silvers in shooting and powerlifting.