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Day 8 schedule for India

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Badminton preview: India can hope for several medals as sport makes its debut

Meet Singhraj Adhana, who built own range during lockdown and won a medal at 39

07.35 pm: So a quick recap, the day began with a shooting event (rifle prone, mixed-gender event) that had three Indians in contention. None of them could qualify for the final. Swimmer Suyash, not in his main event, did not register a valid swim. Men’s club throw saw Amit Kumar Saroha and Dharmabir finish 5th and 8th. And the first ever Badminton session at the Paralympic Games came to a close. Three matches featuring Indians and World No 1 Pramod Bhagat began with a win in his group. And thus we are in this bizarre position of not having a single medal for India today. What a weird feeling! *winks*

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: And thus comes to an end the first ever Paralympics session of badminton. CHYRKOV Oleksandr is the third player in this Group A and he will face Pramod Bhagat tomorrow, a win there for the Indian will take him into the semifinal.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: And that’s the match in three games for Pramod Bhagat. The world No 1 races through the decider and puts himself on the winning side in this group.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: A slew of match points at 20-9 for Pramod.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: Meanwhile it is a 17-5 lead in the decider for Pramod Bhagat, he seems to have raced away with this game. (But winning that one game might help Manoj in the group when it comes to deciding the 2nd place opponent... so seems like a win-win, this one).

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: Pramod has a 12-5 lead in the third. I was hoping for some more long shot badminton but this is all we got, with the half court that the Indians are playing cut off. (And now the feed is closed too!)

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: At the final change of ends it is a 11-4 lead in the decider for Pramod.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: It is now a 9-4 lead for Pramod, he would love to close this out as quickly as he can.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: It is a 7-2 lead for Pramod in the third game.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: And make that 21-21 as Manoj saves two match points! He has a game point on his own at 22-21 and that he converts to take this match to a decider. 39 minutes in! A long day for Pramod.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: It is 20-20 now and then Pramod has another match point at 21-20.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: Match point Pramod at 20-19.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: Make that 19-19 in the second game. Pramod really wouldn’t want this to go to the decider having already played a thriller in mixed doubles.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: Pramod has the serve back at 18-19.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: And now Manoj Sarkar is into the lead and a good one at that with 18-16. A decider looms.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: Well, well, Manoj certainly not making this easy for Pramod! It is 15-15 in the second game now. Solid fightback it seems.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: Extending the lead steadily is Pramod, moving up 15-10 in the second game.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: Pramod had a 7-point lead at one point in the second game but Manoj Sarkar seems to have found another gear and closed the gap down 8-10. Pramod has a 11-8 lead in the mid-game interval after a 21-10 scoreline in the first.

Athletics Men’s Club Throw - F51: End of the event. Dharambir finished 8th, while Amit Kumar Saroha finished 5th (he was 4th in Rio). The Russian athlete takes gold with a new world record, the previous world record holder with a second-placed finish. And, yes, that means it’s a no-medal day for India.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: It seemed close enough at the start of the opening game, but the second half was all Pramod. The top seed has a 2-0 lead in the second game.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: World No 1 Pramod Bhagat comfortably takes the opening game 21-10 against his compatriot Manoj Sarkar.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: Going by the numbers, the rallies are not too short but on the scoreboard Pramod has a 13-8 lead, suggesting a handy lead.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: Pramod Bhagat has moved into an early 8-3 lead in the opening game. This is an example of how, meanwhile, the singles SL3 category works.

Badminton Men’s Singles SL3 Group Play Stage - Group A: SL3 players must play standing. The player could have impairment in one or both legs and poor walking/running balance. And since the level impairment is severe, players use only half the court, split through the middle line.

Now time for men’s singles SL3 Group A match. An all-Indian clash between Pramod Bhagat and Manoj Sarkar. Just six participants in this category, the top two from each group move into semifinals.

Badminton Women’s Singles SU5 Group Play Stage - Group A: Palak Kohli never quite got going. Couldn’t have been easy playing a 2nd match so soon and the world No 1 proved to be too clinical. Kohli never won two points in a row in that match, that’s how tough that was. The Indian will play her second singles match tomorrow.

Badminton Women’s Singles SU5 Group Play Stage - Group A: This is slightly better as Kohli is lengthening the rallies better than she did in the first game. 16-6.

Badminton Women’s Singles SU5 Group Play Stage - Group A: More of the same in the second game as the Japanese world No 1 is dictating terms. 11-3 at the mid-game interval.

Badminton Women’s Singles SU5 Group Play Stage - Group A: Court coverage seems to be the biggest difference between the two players. Suzuki has raced away to a 8-2 lead in the second game.

Badminton Women’s Singles SU5 Group Play Stage - Group A: Tough opening game there for Palak Kohli. The youngster just never got going in the rallies. Seemed she wanted to push the shuttle to the backcourt as much as possible but missed the lines. She can still get some confidence out of this match if she wins a few points at the start of the second

Badminton Women’s Singles SU5 Group Play Stage - Group A: Well that took a while but with a delightful drop shot, Kohli gets the serve back at 3-16.

Badminton Women’s Singles SU5 Group Play Stage - Group A: Both players exchanged serves early on but the top seed gets on a roll and wins 7 straight points to open up a 11-2 lead. Average rally length is just 4 strokes at the moment.

Badminton Women’s Singles SU5 Group Play Stage - Group A: Palak Kohli is trying to keep the shuttles in her opponent’s back court but the radar is not there at the moment. Suzuki leading 9-2 after a close-ish start.

Badminton Women’s Singles SU5 Group Play Stage - Group A: Time for Palak Kohli’s match against the world No 1. The Indian is ranked No 11 in the category. Warm up done, here we go.

Badminton Women’s Singles SU5 Group Play Stage - Group A: Palak Kohli vs world No 1 Ayako Suzuki about to start. Live stream here.

Athletics Men’s Club Throw - F51 RAMOS HERNANDEZ Mario Santana of Mexico registered only two attempts but both were 29+ and with a best of 30.25 he moves into second.

Badminton: Oh nice. Not only the all-Indian match is not on the TV court, now it is going to likely overlap with Palak Kohli’s singes match on court 1. That should be fun. (/s)

Badminton Women’s Singles SU5 Group Play Stage - Group A: The men’s singles match before Kohli and Suzuki is turning into a thriller, and a decider is underway. Which means India’s match will be delayed of course.

Athletics Men’s Club Throw - F51: TAIMAZOV Musa (RUS) with a new World Record 35.42m to start his six attempts. That’s nice. Good for him! Amit moves into second spot.

Badminton Women’s Singles SU5 Group Play Stage - Group A: Here are the 10 participants for SU5. Kohli, Suzuki and Zehra Baglar in Group A. Three groups with top two from each group progressing to the knockouts.

Athletics Men’s Club Throw - F51: Dharambir’s final attempt is declared a foul as well. Just one approved attempt at 25.59m. The big guns of the field will make their attempts next. Medal looks unlikely for India here, but we will keep an eye on how the rest of the athletes do.

Athletics Men’s Club Throw - F51: After a foul on his 4th attempt as well, Dharambir gets on board with a 25.59 off his 5th try. One attempt left.

Athletics Men’s Club Throw - F5: Oh dear. Dharambir has started with three fouled attempts.

Athletics Men’s Club Throw - F51: Dharmabir set to make his throws now. His PB is 27.56. First target presumably would be to throw farther than his mentor Amit did.

Badminton action to come later on: Palak Kohli in singles SU5 around 5 pm (on TV court, huzzah!) and an all-Indian battle between Manoj Sarkar and world No 1 Pramod Bhagat in singles SL3 around 540 pm (not on TV court, boo!)

Athletics Men’s Club Throw - F51: The bronze medal mark at Dubai World C’ships 20129 was 29.29 (where Amit finished 5th). Five athletes have a PB higher than Amit’s 27.77 here. On paper, a medal looks tough. Dharambir will go third.

Athletics Men’s Club Throw - F51: Amit Kumar Saroha finishes with a best attempt of 27.77. His final attempt came close to that after two fouls previously. Now he waits for the rest of the athletes to compete.

Athletics Men’s Club Throw - F51: Amit Kumar Saroha is the first athlete in action and he starts with 25.41m. Second attempt is a better one, at 27.77m. Can he get closer to his PB (30.25) here? Throws 24.86 with his 3rd attempt, and the 4th is a foul.

Athletics Men’s Club Throw - F51

IMPAIRED MUSCLE POWER OR IMPAIRED RANGE OF MOVEMENT - SPORT CLASSES T51-54; F51-57 

In the 50s sport classes, all athletes compete in a seated position, either in wheelchair or on a throwing chair, due to impaired muscle power, restricted range of movement, limb deficiency or leg length difference. A lower number indicates a higher activity limitation. Athletes in sport classes F51-53 have limited shoulder, arm and hand function to different degrees and usually no trunk or leg function. This profile is, for example, seen with athletes with spinal cord injury resulting in tetraplegia.

— via Paralympic.org

Athletics Men’s Club Throw - F51: Club throw F51. Just like at Rio 2016, this is a fascinating event for India. One where the mentor & mentee compete together: Amit Kumar Saroha & Dharambir. In Rio, Amit came close to a medal, finished 4th. 26.82 was the bronze, he threw 26.63. Amit was moments away from winning India’s fifth medal when he was occupying the bronze medal position but SVK athlete won the bronze with one the final throws of the event.

Athletics Men’s Club Throw - F51: Time (almost) for India’s only athletics event of the day. Amit Kumar Saroha (mentor-cum-player) is action along with Dharambir in men’s club throw F51.

Badminton Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage - Group B: Some fight that from the Indian pair against the world No 2. World No 3 from Thailand are the other team and the IND-THA match is the final one in this group. Could get interesting.

Badminton Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage - Group B: FRANCE WIN A THRILLER! You can hear a loud round of applause on the main stream, one must think it is for the India pair. They saved a match point but the French seconds convert the second. What a performance by this Indian pair against the much higher-ranked side!

Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage: One match point saved!

Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage: 20-18 France.

Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage: Now it is 19-17 France.

Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage: The Indians have the serve back at 17-18, making sure the French are getting away.

Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage: It is super close in the decider! The Indians are behind just by a point at 13-14.

Badminton Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage - Group B: It’s 11-9 to the French in the decider.

Badminton Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage - Group B: Even the live scores have vanished for us. Boo!

Badminton Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage - Group B: Pramod Bhagat and Palak Kohli have taken the 2nd game 21-15! Well, well, well. That’s quite the turnaround. Terrific stuff from the Indians (even if we are unable to watch). We get a glimpse of them talking with coach Gaurav Khanna in the background.

Badminton Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage - Group B: Multiple game points for the Indians.

Badminton Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage - Group B: This is rather fantastic! A 17-12 for the Indians after we returned for the second half of the second game!

Badminton Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage - Group B: This is rather impressive from Kohli and Bhagat. They had the lead there at 9-8 but the French have the edge back at the mid-game interval leading 11-10. Meanwhile, here’s a glimpse that we caught of them:

Badminton Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage - Group B: A much better start to the second game for Bhagat-Kohli, they have kept pace with the second seeds.It’s 8-8!

Badminton Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage - Group B: It is a comfortable opening game for the French second seeds.

Badminton Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage - Group B: The French second seeds have raced into a 11-4 lead in the opening game.

Badminton Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage - Group B: Just some background on why the task will be tough for the Indians. The top-four ranked pairs in the competition are SL4+SL4 combinations with only Japan’s Daisuke Fujihara (SL3) and Akoko Sugina (SU5) playing as SL3+SU5 combination apart from the Indians. In contrast, the shuttler with SL3 impairment finds it difficult to move sideways and hence the bulk of work has to be done by the SU5 shuttler. (SL3 Players play half court)

Para badminton classification: 

  • WH1 is for players who require a wheelchair to play badminton and usually have an impairment in both their legs and trunk. Players are required to play in a wheelchair in this class. 
  • WH2 is for players who could have an impairment in one or both legs and minimal or no impairment of the trunk.
  • SL3 players must play standing. The player could have impairment in one or both legs and poor walking/running balance.
  • SL4 is a second standing class where the player has a lesser impairment compared to Sport Class SL3. The player could have an impairment in one or both legs and a minimal impairment in walking/running balance.
  • SU5 is for players with an impairment of the upper limb. The impairment could be on the playing or non-playing hand.
  • SH6 is for players who have a short stature.

Badminton Mixed Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage - Group B: Mixed doubles is what India are in action in first, Palak Kohli and Pramod Bhagat are not a regular pairing in this category. They have a tough ask against the world no 2 pair.

Swimming: Suyash Jadhav is scheduled to be back for 50m butterfly day after tomorrow, his main event in Tokyo.

Swimming, Men’s 100m Breaststroke - SB7 final: Jadhav gets disqualified. Carlos Zarate wins the event with a Paralympic record.

Swimming: Time for Jadhav’s event. He doesn’t have a real chance and is not swimming in his favourite event here.

Next up for India: The Men’s 100m Breaststroke - SB7 event. India’s Suyash Narayan Jadhav will be competing.

Swimming: US swimmer Haven Shepherd lost her legs as a baby after her parents detonated a bomb intended to kill the whole family.

This week, at her maiden Paralympics in Tokyo, the upbeat teenager said her goals were all about “just going out and having fun”.

Shepherd was 14 months old and living in rural Vietnam when her birth parents – who she has been told were having an affair and could not marry – decided to take their own lives, as well as the child’s.

They strapped themselves to a bomb, held Haven and detonated the device, killing themselves instantly and blasting their tiny daughter 12 metres (40 feet) out of their hut.

She survived, though doctors were forced to amputate her legs. Six months later she was adopted by an American family who took her to Missouri to begin a new life.

Now 18, she described her debut at the Tokyo Games last Saturday as “a surreal moment”. (AFP)

Athletics: A German long jumper who leaps further than his Olympic counterparts is among the stars competing at the Tokyo Paralympics on Wednesday.

Markus Rehm, known as the “Blade Jumper”, is eyeing his fourth Paralympic gold and third straight victory in the long jump T64.

He has said he wants to “attack” his own world record, which he set in June with a jump of 8.62m that would have won gold at every Olympics since 1992.

There are 43 medals up for grabs on Wednesday, and badminton is appearing for the first time, as one of two Paralympic sports making their debut in Tokyo. (via AFP)

There have been 12 World Championships to date, with the last taking place in Basel, Switzerland, in 2019 that saw 240 athletes from 49 nations. And finally a debut at the Paralympics... read more here about the event and athletes to look forward to.

More medals in a few hours (5) than the entire duration of any Paralympic Games campaign before (4 maximum)! A recap of India’s magnificent Monday.

If you are looking to watch something right now... here’s an interesting, unique-to-Paralympics event.

Shooting: Singhraj Adhana, who built own range during lockdown, won a medal at 39 The 39-year-old won bronze in P1 men’s 10m air pistol SH1 event after surviving a nervy battle with a Chinese shooter.

Read more about him here.

Afghan Paralympian beats the odds to compete in Tokyo

After a dramatic evacuation from Taliban-held Kabul and a secret operation to fly him to Tokyo, Afghan Paralympian Hossain Rasouli beat the odds on Tuesday to compete in the long jump. It was not the event he had been expecting to contest, after qualifying for the 100m T47, but then just about everything in his world was turned upside down with the insurgents’ capture of his homeland.

After the militant group overran the capital, he and fellow Afghan Paralympian Zakia Khudadadi found themselves trapped, with no way to get to Tokyo. At first, it seemed their Paralympic dream was over. A Tokyo 2020 volunteer symbolically carried the Afghan flag during the Games opening ceremony, with no athletes on the ground to take part.

Over the weekend though, officials revealed the Afghan pair had been successfully flown out of the country. After a stop in Dubai, they were taken to Paris and spent a week at the French sports ministry’s high-performance training centre before flying to Tokyo, where they arrived on Saturday evening.

The pair are being kept away from the media, with the International Paralympic Committee saying the athletes needed space to focus on their sport.

The Afghan emerged from the athletes’ entrance on Tuesday with a wave to team officials dotted around the mostly empty Olympic Stadium.

Rasouli, whose left hand was amputated as the result of a mine explosion, then proudly pointed towards the Afghanistan Paralympic Committee logo on his vest. The 26-year-old finished last, reflecting his comparative inexperience in the discipline – it was his first time taking part in long jump in a major competition.

Khudadadi will compete in taekwondo on Thursday.

— via AFP

Shooting: Natascha HILTROP (GER) pips (KOR) PARK Jinho in the R3 - Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 Final in a thriller! Came down to the last shot. One of the 7 mixed-gender para shooting events. Would be pretty awesome to see this mainstream as well I think.

Shooting R3 - Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1: No Indian in the final but if you want to watch some live shooting para sport, here is the live stream.

07.15 am: Unlike the manic nature of yesterday’s morning session, today we wait. The next scheduled event is Suyash Jadhav’s swimming 100m breast stroke SB7 final. And it promises to be a fun afternoon session with the start of badminton action for India.

Shooting R3 - Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 Qualification: No Indian qualifies for the final, which is a bit unfortunate considering we are in the first day of shooting telecasting. Three women and five men in the top eight.

Avani Lekhara in 27th place: 629.7

Sidhartha Babu in 40th place: 625.5.

Deepak in 43rd place: 624.9

Shooting R3 - Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 Qualification: And Sidhartha’s six series are done as well. He has one more event left in Tokyo.

Sidhartha Babu: 104.9 103.4 102.9 105.2 105.3 103.8

Shooting R3 - Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 Qualification: Two not-so-great series to finish her qualification round and Avani’s day is done as well. She has two more events to go.

Avani Lekhara: 105.9 105.0 104.9 105.3 104.2 104.4

Shooting R3 - Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 Qualification: Deepak is already done with six series and finishes with a 624.9. He will return for two more events.

Deepak: 102.7 106.3 103.6 104.8 104.1 103.4

Shooting R3 - Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 Qualification: 104.2 from Avani Lekhara in the next series and you can blame that on this blogger. Did he have to jinx her 105+ scores while she was shooting? No, he didn’t.

Shooting R3 - Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 Qualification: The positions not changing much as we get into the final stages. But a word of appreciation for Avani who has been very consistent so far and is placed in the top 15 as of now.

Avani Lekhara: 105.9 105.0 104.9 105.3

Deepak: 102.7 106.3 103.6 104.8 104.1

Sidhartha Babu: 104.9 103.4 102.9

Shooting R3 - Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 Qualification: This is not looking particularly promising for any of the three Indian shooters. Prone scores are usually high and except a series each for Avani and Deepak, not many in the top bracket. All of them outside top 15 as things stand.

Avani Lekhara: 105.9 105.0

Deepak: 102.7 106.3 103.6 104.8

Sidhartha Babu: 104.9 103.4

Shooting R3 - Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 Qualification: Avani Lekhara starts off with a superb series of 105.9. Deepak with 102.7 and Sidhartha with 104.9.

Shooting R3 - Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 Qualification: This is one of the seven mixed-gender shooting events: five for rifle and two for pistol. For this event, there are 47 participants and 26 countries are represented as per Shooting Para organisers! Some spread that. Six series of 10 shots, of course.

Shooting R3 - Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 Qualification: The three Indians in action here are Sidhartha Babu, Deepak and of course, Avani Lekhara.

06.01 am: Shooting qualification action to start the day...

06.00 am: Hello all and welcome to our daily live coverage of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It is day 8 today and India’s medal tally stands at 10 as we kick things off. How about that, eh? Averaging more than a medal per day at the international quadrennial Summer Games.

India’s first ever female Paralympic gold medallist Avani Lekhara will return to action for her second event at the Tokyo Paralympics when she takes part in the R3 - Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 event on Wednesday. Three shooters are in the fray in this event (a mixed event where both male and female shooters participate).

Badminton, a sport that is making its debut at the Paralympic Games, will get going on Wednesday as well with Pramod Bhagat, Palak Kohli and Manoj Sarkar in action.

Day 8 schedule for India