Tokyo Paralympics, day 3 as it happened: Bhavina Patel storms into semifinal, assured of a medal

Tokyo 2020: Meet Bhavina Patel, first ever Indian table tennis player to secure a Paralympics medal

Table tennis, women’s singles Class 4 semifinal lineup... How good is that? Three Chinese athletes and one Indian. Bhavina takes world No 3 Miao Zhang tomorrow.

Archery: Compound open individual eliminations tomorrow and India’s Shyam Sundar Swami will have the honour of going up against the brilliant Matt Stutzman, London 2012 silver medallist. Another star of #RisingPhoenix, he is brilliant in the documentary with his wry sense of humour. He calls himself the Armless Archer. He recalls in the documentary, “I remember telling my dad I wanted to be the next Michael Jordan. There was no way I was going to be the next Michael Jordan, right? No way. I am not tall enough...”

Table tennis: While the win against the Serbian star was a case of domination, the win earlier in the day was a contrasting one for Bhavina Patel. In the round of 16, she displayed tremendous composure under pressure in the first and second games. She was down 9-10 in game 1 and then saved the game point to win three points in a row. In the second game, she was down 7-10 and faced three game points. From there she won four straight points and eventually clinched it 13-11. In the third game, she was trailing 0-3 and went on a streak of seven straight points.

Tokyo Paralympics, table tennis: Bhavina Patel stuns defending champ to reach SF, assured of medal

Athletics, men’s shot put F55: To confirm rankings at the end of the event... Tek Chand finishes 8th in men’s shot put F55. Brazil’s Wallace created a new world record and clinches gold.

MOMENT TO REMEMBER: History made by Bhavina Patel. Colour of the medal yet to be confirmed, she is now the 2nd Indian woman after Deepa Malik to earn a place on the podium at the Paralympic Games.

Table tennis women’s singles, class 4: CONFIRMED: There is no bronze medal playoff in table tennis at the Tokyo Paralympics. Bhavina Patel is assured of a medal. She is now the first Indian ever to win a Paralympics #TableTennis medal.

Tokyo Paralympics, table tennis: Bhavina Patel stuns defending champ to reach SF, assured of medal

Table tennis women’s singles, class 4: STAT ALERT: In her win against world No 2 and reigning champion, Bhavina Patel trailed at only one point in the entire match: 0-1 in 2nd game. What a dominant win. She will face the world No 3 ZHANG Miao of China in the semifinal.

World No 12 Bhavina Patel’s campaign so far... 

 Defeated world No 9 Megan Shackleton in must-win group stage match. 

 Defeated world No 8 Joyce de Oliveira in the round of 16. 

 Defeated world No 2 and reigning Class 4 singles champion Borislava Peric-Rankovic in the quarterfinal.

Table tennis women’s singles, class 4 quarterfinal: As per PTI, Bhavina Patel was the first Indian to reach the singles quarterfinals even at the Paralympics so this is just her extending that record now. What a campaign this has been for her! A look at the detailed stats for the Indian win over the Serbian legend.

Athletics, men’s shot put F55 (seated event): Tek Chand had the lowest PB among the starters, so it was always going to be an uphill task for him. He will finish outside the medal positions as three athletes have registered better marks already

Athletics, men’s shot put F55 (seated event): Tek Chand manages two valid attempts out of his 6. Could not cross his PB of 9.57 in this event. Finishes with a best of 9.04 on the night.

Powerlifting, men’s -65kg final: Jaideep Deswal went for 160kg again in his 2nd attempt, did not clear that. In his final attempt, he went for 167kg and that was not deemed a good lift either. He will finish without a score.

Table tennis women’s singles, class 4 quarterfinal: BHAVINA PATEL HAS DONE IT! She has stunned Borislava Peric-Rankovic, the world No 2 and reigning champion in straight games and is through to the semifinal. Brilliant!

Table tennis women’s singles, class 4 quarterfinal: Bhavina has raced into a 2-0 lead.

Athletics, men’s shot put F55 (seated event): A World Record. Brilliant from Wallace Santos of Brazil who has laid down the marker for the rest of the field.

Table tennis women’s singles, class 4 quarterfinal WHAT A START! Bhavina Patel has taken the first game 11-5 against the defending champion in just 5 mins.

Table tennis women’s singles, class 4 quarterfinal: Bhavina Patel in action against the defending champion Borislava Peric-Rankovic in Class 4 quarterfinal. Can the Indian pull off an upset? It is on table 5, so no streaming or telecast.

Athletics, men’s shot put F55 (seated event): Tek Chand, India’s flagbearer at the opening ceremony, was originally listed for men’s F54 javelin, but has since been reclassified to F55 shot put. For starters, he’d hope for a significant improvement over his PB. You can watch the live stream here.

Powerlifting, men’s -65kg final: Jaideep doesn’t get the green for his second attempt either. Will have one more attempt at 160kg to get on the board. Won’t be enough for a medal but can still put in possibly in the 5th spot, which is worth fighting for.

Powerlifting, men’s -65kg final: Five athletes register good lifts in the first tries. And the bronze medal position is already at 187kg. Quite possible that the medal positions are already sealed.

Powerlifting, men’s -65kg final: Jaideep’s first listed attempt if 160kg. And he doesn’t register a good lift on board. Will go again.

Powerlifting, men’s -65kg final: Time for the second and final powerlifting event for India. Jaideep Deswal in action. On paper, there is a significant gulf in the opening lifts across the athletes in this category. There are 5 lifters who have entered a higher wait than the Indian as things stand.

SWIMMING: ANOTHER WORLD RECORD!

Wheelchair Tennis: Did you know?

SWIMMING: World Record Alert!

History in the making?

Afghanistan-born swimmer Abbas Karimi set his sights on becoming the first refugee team member to win a Paralympic medal on Friday, almost a decade after he fled his homeland seeking a new life.

Karimi qualified for the final of the men’s S5 50m butterfly and said afterwards his “thoughts and prayers” were with the Afghan people after the Taliban takeover.

The swimmer is one of six athletes representing the Refugee Paralympic Team in Tokyo, having fled the conflict in Afghanistan at the age of 16 and eventually settling in the United States. (via AFP)

Archery: Missed out the all-important mixed team compound (open) draw... could well be a real shot at a medal, here. India face Thailand in the round of 16.

Archery: After the ranking rounds, here’s how the elimination brackets look for Indian archers across all the categories...

Archery, ranking round: So to sum up...

In compound: Jyoti 15th seed (women’s), Rakesh 3rd, Shyam 21st (men’s), mixed team of Jyoti & Rakesh 6th.

In recurve: Vivek 10th, Harvinder 21st

Archery, Men’s Individual Open Ranking Round (RECURVE): In recurve, Harvinder Singh had a good start but lost his way a bit after a poor 4th set. He finishes 21st. Vivek, in contrast, finishes better than he started and earns the 10th seed.

Archery, Men’s Individual Open Ranking Round (COMPOUND): Rakesh Kumar takes the third seed in compound individual event. It’s a new PB of 699 and a score better than the previous Paralympic Record of 687, which has been obliterated by China’s He Zihao who goes two short of world record and takes the top seed (705) In the mixed team seeding, Rakesh’s superb show is enough to keep India 6th seeded. Swami takes 21st seed.

Archery, Men’s Individual Open Ranking Round: BOOM! Now, a perfect set of 60 from Rakesh Kumar (compound). He is finishing strongly. Remains third place on the qualification standings. And has taken India into the 6th position on the mixed team seeding table.

Archery, Men’s Individual Open Ranking Round: Harvinder Singh seems to have lost the early momentum quite a bit (wonder what the impact of that missed arrow was). He has dropped outside the top 20 now. Vivek is 11th. In compound, Rakesh is 3rd and Swami is 22nd

Archery, Men’s Individual Open Ranking Round: Rakesh Kumar is into the 3rd spot! Another 59 from him in the 10th set. And the mixed team seeding is 7th but level on scores with Italy at the moment. Could still move up to 6th.

Archery, Men’s Individual Open Ranking Round: Rakesh Kumar doing really well in the compound qualification and remains 5th. His score has also pushed India into the 7th position of the mixed team seedings.

Archery, Men’s Individual Open Ranking Round: Another stray final arrow from Harvinder, geez it really is hurting him. A 48 from him and 58 from Vivek as the latter moves up to 11th.

Rakesh Kumar’s scores are also important for the compound open mixed team seedings, where the Indian pair currently are placed as 8th seeds.

Archery, Men’s Individual Open Ranking Round: Harvinder Singh has just struggled, to observe a pattern, with the sixth arrows of each end. Couple of 6s, couple of 5s and a missed arrow too. He would be in the top 10 otherwise. Remains 14th for now. Rakesh (compound) has moved to 5th...

Archery, Women’s Individual Compound: The knockout bracket for women’s compound open is now available. Jyoti faces Irish archer first up in round of 32. If she wins that match, world No 4 & 2nd seed from Russian Paralympic Committee awaits in round of 16.

Archery, Men’s Individual Open Ranking Round: Second half of qualification underway..

Archery, Men’s Individual Open Ranking Round: 36 arrows done in the qualification, 36 more to go. Harvinder moves up to 13th and Vivek at 14th (recurve), Rakesh now at 8th and Swami at 26th (compound). The compound scores are super close with the leader at 352 and 10th place at 347. Could still change quite a bit based on the second half.

Archery, Men’s Individual Open Ranking Round: Oh no, a missed arrow for Harvinder Singh (recurve) in 4th set. He was doing solidly till then and was heading for another good set. That’s a costly error, wonder what happened there. In compound, both Rakesh and Swami have solid sets.

Archery, Men’s Individual Open Ranking Round: Harvinder Singh has gotten better with every END in the recurve and has moved to 4th while Rakesh has shot two 59s in compound and is placed 5th. Good stuff.

Powerlifting, women’s -50kg: WHOAAA! That’s some finish. China’s Dandan Hu matches Rehab Ahmed’s new Paralympic Record mark of 120kg and goes into the lead. The Egyptian had to get 121kg right to retake the top spot but she doesn’t. So despite setting the PR, Ahmed finished with silver. That’s quite the late turnaround.

Powerlifting, women’s -50kg: Sakina Khatun’s third try is at 93kg and it is deemed a good lift. Whether she finishes 5th or 6th was upto the Spaniard Zabala and she cannot get 97kg right. So the Indian, with a best lift of 93kg (1.97 times her body weight, for the record), finishes 5th in her category on her Paralympic Games debut.

Powerlifting, women’s -50kg: Two attempts in, twice the Paralympic Record has been broken. Egypt’s Rehab Ahmed with a 120kg lift in her second attempt. The top two positions seem set already. Sakina, meanwhile, will go for 93kg again.

Powerlifting, women’s -50kg: Sakina Khatun’s second attempt of 93kg is not deemed a good lift. Her best remains 90kg. She will have one more try at 93kg. (And for the record, that puts her out of medal contention as four other lifters already have crossed 100)

Powerlifting, women’s -50kg: Sakina Khatun’s first attempt of 90kg puts her, as on the start-list, sixth best in the field. She will go for 93kg next. Three lifters already have crossed 100-plus, with Egypt’s Rehab Ahmed (Rio silver medallist) leading the field with a whopping 117kg first attempt: PARALYMPIC RECORD for this category, overtaking the 4th in the list below currently: Soloviova of UKR.

A quick note: No streams or telecast for powerlifting (not just today, been the case previously as well). Just highlights later in the day from what I can see.

Powerlifting, women’s -50kg:: Sakina Khatun’s first lift of 90kg is deemed a good one. She is on the board. Now we wait for the other lifters with weights than her to complete their attempts.

Powerlifting, women’s -50kg: Time for the first medal event featuring an Indian athlete. Sakina Khatun will be in action in women’s -50kg category. She has a first listed attempt of 90kg.

Watch: One of the unique features of Paralympics... athletes and their guides share a beautiful bond.

Table tennis, women’s singles, Class 4: Borislava Peric-Rankovic is currently the world No 2 (and a former world No 1). She is a veteran of the sport, and one of the legends and is going strong at 49. She is a two-time silver medallist from 2008 and 2012 and went one step further in 2016 to make it a gold. Will be a tough battle for the Indian but she has defeated two higher-ranked players already and will have nothing to lose.

Table tennis, women’s singles, Class 4: Bhavina Patel through to QF. Lovely reaction at the end.

Table tennis, women’s singles, Class 4, round of 16 IND 2-0 BRA: Game 3 and match, Bhavina Patel! The Indian saves game points in Game 1 & Game 2, comes back from 0-3 down in the third and seals the match in straight games. Into the QF where the defending champion awaits.

Table tennis, women’s singles, Class 4, round of 16 IND 2-0 BRA: Bhavina comes back from 0-3 down early in game three and reels of seven points in a row! She now has a 9-6 lead.

Table tennis, women’s singles, Class 4, round of 16 IND 1-0 BRA: Superb again from Bhavina Patel to save three game points from 7-10 down and make it 10-10. The first point after timeout goes to the Indian and she has a game point too. Needs a second game point to lead 2-0 as she takes the game 13-11. That is some clutch stuff!

Table tennis, women’s singles, Class 4, round of 16 IND 1-0 BRA: Super smash from Bhavina closes the lead to 7-9 and then a couple of brilliant points when down game point to make it 9-10. A timeout called by Brazil, as two game points have come and gone.

Table tennis, women’s singles, Class 4, round of 16 IND 1-0 BRA: Similar pattern to the first game, de Oliveira just holding the early advantage after a really close start... 7-5, 9-6.

Table tennis, women’s singles, Class 4, round of 16 IND 1-0 BRA: Game 1, Bhavina Patel! Brilliant from the Indian to keep clawing her way back into the game when Joyce went in the lead and she saves a game point too. Takes it 12-10 from 9-10.

Table tennis, women’s singles, Class 4, round of 16 IND vs BRA: Joyce leads 9-7 and then Bhavina makes it 9-9. Joyce has a game point and Bhavina saves that too!

Table tennis, women’s singles, Class 4, round of 16 IND vs BRA: Joyce with he lead at different points in the game so far, but Bhavina closes the gap down to 7-7. A very enthusiastic coach behind the Indian, there is a superb 22-shot rally in the first game too.

Table tennis, women’s singles, Class 4, round of 16 IND vs BRA: Bhavina Patel vs Joyce de Oliveira is underway. Round of 16 match between India and Brazil, spot at QF at stake. Watch live here.

Archery, Women’s Individual Compound - Open Ranking Round: Jyoti Balyan finishes 15th in the qualification round, registering a strong 58 in her final set. Updates about her knockout round bracket should be available soon. The Indian saves her best for last, with two sets of 57 and a 58 at the end. Moves up a spot from 16th to 15th with a total of 671. Fun-fact, 12 archers go past the previous Paralympic Record of 674. GBR’s Jessica Stretton with a superb 59 in her final set to pip Stepanida ARTAKHINOVA from RPC in the very end for 694, just one short of the world record!

Table tennis, women’s singles, Class 4: Having lost her first match, Bhavina Patel progressed to this stage after a win over world No 9 Megan Shackleton. (Photo: PCI)

Bhavina Patel through to knockouts. Report here:

Archery, Women’s Individual Compound - Open Ranking Round: That is another 57 for Jyoti in the penultimate set of six arrows. She closes in on the 15th spot, needs a two-point swing in the final set.

Table tennis, women’s singles, Class 4: Bhavina Patel has been scheduled for table 6 for her round of 16 match vs Brazil’s Joyce de Oliveira (world No 8) and that means we will get to watch her live. Coming up after the match currently underway... you can watch the live stream here.

Archery, Women’s Individual Compound - Open Ranking Round: The best set of six so far from Jyoti as she registers a 57 in her 10th end. Might not matter much here in terms of the placing, but that will give her some confidence, if she can go and finish strongly.

Table tennis: An update from the tables, Ibrahim Hamadtou’s singles campaign has come to a close. A group with Korea and China was never going to be easy for him to realise the dream of progressing further but he has done so much by his mere presence at these Games, even if that sounds a bit cliched.

Archery, Women’s Individual Compound - Open Ranking Round: Sure enough, another 55 from Jyoti in her 9th set of six arrows. The Paralympic Record of 674, meanwhile, is coming under threat from the Russian archer ARTAKHINOVA Stepanida at the top. She’s on 521 with three ends to go.

Archery, Women’s Individual Compound - Open Ranking Round: It’s a 55 in her 8th set of six arrows and Jyoti remains 16th among the 24 archers.

Archery, Women’s Individual Compound - Open Ranking Round: Second half of the qualification round underway and Jyoti has another 56 to her name, but the archers around her have put up a few 57s and more. The Indian moves to 16th.

Archery, Women’s Individual Compound - Open Ranking Round: Consistency seems to be the name of the game for Jyoti, she is keeping it steady in that 55-56 region. The Russian Paralympic Committee archer ARTAKHINOVA Stepanida remains in the lead.

Archery, Women’s Individual Compound - Open Ranking Round: Another 55 for Jyoti in the 5th set, she has been consistent in that region. Remains 13th among the 24 archers. If she wants a position in the top 8, the gap has opened up to six points for that. A bit tough to overcome that even if 42 arrows remain.

Archery, Women’s Individual Compound - Open Ranking Round: A 55 from Jyoti in set 4, after three sets of 56. Five 9s and a 10 in that round. She slides down by one place to 13th. The *refugee team archer in the lead! CORRECTION: That’s the Russian Paralympic Committee archer.

Archery, Women’s Individual Compound - Open Ranking Round: After 18 of the 72 arrows in qualification... Jyoti is placed 11th with a total of 168. Three ends of 56 each from the Indian. Not far from the pace-setters at the top, with China at 172.

Archery, Women’s Individual Compound - Open Ranking Round: Jyoti has started well, with scores of 56 in Ends 1 and 2 from her 6 arrows each.

How the archery qualification works: 

Archers in the compound open and W1 categories shoot over a distance of 50 metres at targets The qualifying phase of the competition consists of 72 arrows shot for cumulative score, is used to rank and then seed the archers for the eliminations phase.

Classification in archery: Athletes at Tokyo 2020 will compete in two events: W1 and Open. W1 is for athletes with an impairment in all four limbs that use a wheelchair, and Open combines W2 and ST classes, including athletes who have an impairment in the legs and use a wheelchair or have a balance impairment and shoot standing or resting on a stool. Indian archers are in all the Open category, with Rakesh Kumar in W2 while the others are in Standing class.

OPEN: Athletes may have an impairment in the legs and use a wheelchair or have a balance impairment and shoot standing or resting on a stool. Open category athletes may shoot in recurve or compound competitions, under standard rules, and the category is featured at the Paralympic Games.

Archery, Women’s Individual Compound - Open Ranking Round: India’s Jyoti in action first up in the ranking round. Here’s the start list for her event. (Will not be telecast, FYI)

First up today... archery qualification round.

05.30 am: Hello all and welcome to our live coverage of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It’s back to 5.30 am starts... great news for early risers, eh? Promises to be a packed day for the Indian contingent.

After two days of non-medal events in table tennis, India’s campaign kicks up a few notches on Friday at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

The first medal events are in powerlifting, followed by athletics later in the day. There are two powerlifters in the Indian contingent and both of them will be in action on Friday – Sakina Khatun in the morning followed by Jaideep in the evening.

Day 3 schedule for India.

(Screenshots / stats images via Tokyo2020 official website)