Bhavinaben Patel continued to make history. She has become the first Indian in the history of Paralympics to reach the final of a table tennis event. She defeated Miao Zhang of China 3-2 in the semi-finals. He showed an amazing game in this semi-final of Class 4 on Saturday. The 34-year-old Patel has created a wave of joy and surprise in the Indian camp with his stellar performance in the Paralympics. She defeated the world number three 7-11 11-7 11-4 9-11 11-8. The match lasted 34 minutes.
Bhavina defeated Oliveira of Brazil in match number 20 of the round of 16 in her earlier matches. They won this match 3-0. Bhavina won the first game 12-10, the second game 13-11 and the third game 11-6. Bhavina Patel has come close to winning a medal in Paralympics. Bhavina, daughter of Hasmukhbhai Patel, who runs a small grocery shop in Gujarat’s Mehsana district, was not even considered a contender for the medal but she created history with her performance. Patel, who was a victim of polio at the age of twelve, said, ‘When I came here, I only thought of giving my 100 percent. If you can do this then you will get the medal automatically.
Earlier, Bhavina had created history by reaching the semi-finals. Before him, no Indian had even reached the quarterfinals of table tennis at the Tokyo Paralympics. Bhavina has made this record by reaching the semi-finals. Before the quarter-finals, Bhavina defeated Megan Shackleton of Great Britain 3-1.
