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Tokyo 2020 Paralympics

WATCH: Bhavina Patel wins historic silver medal at Tokyo Paralympics

Bhavina Patel creates history on her debut appearance at Tokyo Paralympics winning a silver medal in table tennis

Bhavina Patel paralympics asian awards 2021
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Bhavina Patel (Source: ITTF)

By

The Bridge Desk

Updated: 29 Aug 2021 8:31 AM GMT

Indian para table tennis player Bhavina Patel on Sunday clinched the silver medal at the Tokyo Paralympics after she faced off China's world no. 1 Zhou Ying in the finals of women's singles class 4 table tennis and suffered a 3-0 defeat.

Despite her defeat in the finals, Patel's feat remains historic as she becomes the first table tennis player to win a medal on a grand stage like the Paralympics or the Olympics. Bhavina. who began her campaign at the Tokyo Games with a defeat, showed her immense willpower after pulling off a comeback from her second game of the group stage.

Bhavina also became India's second woman to win a medal at Paralympics after Deepa Malik won a silver in Rio 2016.

You can watch Bhavina's moment of glory here:


What stood out significantly was how she brushed past the challenges by the world's best players to reach the final of her event.

In her second group stage match, Bhavina beat world no.9, Grat Britain's Megan Shackleton by 3-1.

In Round of 16, Bhavina went on beat Brazil's Joyce de Oliveira, who is ranked no. 8 in the world.
However, the biggest challenges were waiting on for Bhavina in the quarters and semis. She faced reigning Paralympics gold medallist and world no. 2, Peric Rankovic Borislava of Serbia in the quarters. Bhavina looked sharp and confident to win the match in straight games of 3-0 in just 18 minutes.
She went on to face world no.3, China's Zhang Miao in the semifinals, where she beat the Chinese for the first time in her career after facing off and losing on 11 occasions they have met before.


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