Picture Credit: Twitter
Prachi Yadav on Thursday qualified for the semifinals of the canoe sprint event in Women’s Va’a single 200m at the Tokyo Paralympics. The 26-year-old from Bhopal recorded a time of one minute and 11.098 seconds – 13.014 seconds behind leader Great Britain's Emma Wiggs (58.084s) in class VL2 Heat 1 at the Sea Forest Waterway.
She will be seen back in action in the second semifinal of the VL2 on Friday morning at 6:21 AM IST. Those who want to see her live in action can tune into Doordarshan or Eurosport India for broadcast. Live streaming of the event can be done on Paralympics YouTube Channel.
For live updates, you can also follow the Tokyo Paralympics live blog at www.sportstiger.com.
Let us know in detail about the only entry from India in the kayaking and canoeing event.
Name: Prachi Yadav
Age: 26 Years
Born on: 29 May 1995
Hails From: Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh
Profession: Canoe Sprinter
Achievements
Qualified for semifinals at Tokyo Paralympics 2020
Early life
Prachi, who hails from a middle-class family of Madhya Pradesh, lost her mother to cancer in 2003. She was raised by her father who is a government employee. She has a disability below her waist and thus uses her hands to move the boat during canoe sprinting. Before competing in Kayaking and Canoeing, Prachi used to be a champion para-swimmer for India. Her coach Virender Kumar convinced her to opt for para canoeing and here she is delivering at the biggest stage for India.
Prachi has her eyes set on the Paris 2024 Olympics but before that, she got an opportunity to participate in the Tokyo Olympics. As the event was delayed due to COVID, she got lucky with an extra year to prepare. She prepared but the previous year’s qualification event for games was cancelled. However, Yadav earned the ticket to the Tokyo Paralympics based on her participation in 2019.