Indian javelin thrower Ranjeet Bhati got knocked out of the Paralympics after not being able to register even a single legal throw in his six attempts in the men’s javelin class F57 final, on Saturday.
The 24-year-old javelin thrower from Faridabad, Haryana had achieved the fourth position at the Moroccan Grand Prix in 2019 and qualified for the Tokyo Paralympics by winning gold medals at the state-level tournament in Gurugram and the national level competition in Bengaluru this year. Earlier in the day, Bhavinaben Patel had assured India of a silver medal after she became the first Indian para-athlete to enter the final of a table tennis event in the Paralympics with a 3-2 hard-fought win over China’s Miao Zhang in class 4 table tennis semifinal. In archery, Rakesh Kumar continued his fantastic run by progressing towards the pre-quarterfinal stage in the Tokyo Paralympics. He shot 699 out of 720 with nine perfect 10s which include four shots closest to the centre (X). He beat his opponent Hong Kong para-archer Ka Chuen Ngai by an impressive 13-point lead at the Yumenoshima Park.
Unfortunately, Indian para-archer Shyam Sundar Swami had suffered a very narrow 139-142 defeat against 2012 Paralympics silver medal winner Matt Stutzman in the 2nd round of his campaign.
Tomorrow, Bhavinaben Patel will face Zhou Ying for the gold medal in Class 4 Women’s Singles Table Tennis. V.K Vinod Kumar will compete in the F4 Discuss throw finals. Jai Deep will complete in the Men’s 65 kg Powerlifting final and lastly Jyoti will face Kerrie-Louise Leonard in her last 16 matches in the Compound Archery category.
