Mumbai
In what was a Super Sunday for India in Tokyo, Indian Paralympians produced one of the perfect performances. Earlier in the day, Bhavina Patel's sensational run in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games ended with a silver medal as she lost to world No. 1 Zhou Ying of China in straight games in the final of the women's table tennis Class 4.
Bhavina thus made history for India on National Sports Day by becoming the first table tennis player from the country to win a medal in the Paralympic Games.
The silver she won was India’s 13th overall -- 4 gold, 5 silver, and 4 bronze before high jumper Nishad Kumar and discus thrower Vinod Kumar clinched a silver and a bronze respectively with Asian records as India began collecting what is expected to be an unprecedented haul of athletics medals in the Paralympics.
The 21-year-old Nishad, who is a farmer's son in Himachal Pradesh's Amb town, cleared 2.06m to win the silver in T47 class before 41-year-old BSF man Vinod, whose father fought in the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war, produced a best throw of 19.91m to clinch a bronze in F52 event.
Nishad grew up seeing his father doing masonry work to support the family. Nishad was six when his right hand went into the fodder-cutting machine while helping his mother at home. He was taken to a hospital in nearby Hoshiarpur in Punjab, but the hand had to be amputated.
"This is turning out to be an epic National Sports Day ! #IND has won it's 3rd Medal at #Tokyo2020 #Paralympics . #VinodKumar delivered a winning throw !Well done & heartiest congratulations!!! Third place medal in Discus Throw F-52 Final event. New Asian Record at 19.91m," tweeted India’s Sports Minister Anurag Thakur.
Indian sports fraternity on Sunday paid heartiest tributes to Major Dhyan Chand on his birth anniversary which is celebrated as National Sports Day across the nation.
He earned three Olympic gold medals, in 1928, 1932 and 1936. For his contribution towards the game, Dhyan Chand was also known as The Wizard of hockey. He played a crucial role in India's 8-1 triumph over Germany in the 1936 Berlin Olympic final, emerging as the top-scorer with three goals.
