Picture Credit: Twitter
Day 9 of the Tokyo Paralympics 2020 was a consecutive medal-less day for India. However, Indian athletes saw good progress as Pramod Bhagat, Krishna Nagar, and Prachi Yadav cruised into the semi-finals of their respective events. Friday will be a big day for the Indian contingent as the three athletes will look to script history and contribute to the medal tally. Looking at the performance from other para athletes, Palak Kohli was too good for Turkey’s Zehra Baglar as she defeated her in two straight sets. Parul Parmar, however, lost to China’s Hefang Cheng.
Talking about the medal tally, India has slipped to 36th spot, while China won 9 gold medals on the day to continue the dominance at top. Meanwhile, Great Britain has taken the second position from RPC with a total of 34 gold medals to its credit. RPC is two medals short of Britain's and is at the third position.
Let us have a detailed look at the Indian athletes’ performance on September 2:
Mixed 25m Pistol SH1 Qualification
Rahul Jakhar finished in seventh position with a total of 284 points while Akash finished in 11th with a total of 278 points in the precision round. Rahul cruised to the finals with a score of 576 from precision and rapid rounds while Akash finished with a total of 551 points. Later, Rahul Jakhar finished in the fifth position in the finals.
Women's Doubles SL3-SU5 Group Play Stage - Group B
Second seeds Cheng-Ma beat the Indian duo of Kohli-Parmar in straight games of 21-7, 21-5. It took them only 20 minutes to defeat Kohli-Parmar.
Men's Singles SL4 Group Play Stage - Group A and Group B
Suhas Yathiraj defeated Germany’s Jan Niklas Pott in two straight sets of 21-9, 21-3 in the Group A match. Meanwhile, Tarun took on Thailand’s Siripong Teamarron in the Group B clash. He also took the game in two straight sets of 21-7, 21-13.
Women's Va'a Single 200m - VL2 Heat 1
Prachi Yadav, the first Indian to participate in canoeing at Paralympics finished in fourth position and progressed to the semifinals. She will be seen in action Friday morning at 6:21 AM IST where she would need to finish in the top 3 to progress to the final.
Taekwondo - Women K44 - 49kg
India’s Aruna Tanwar (seeded 12th) started with a win over 5th seed Danijela Jovanovic of Serbia in the Round of 16. However, She had to face a defeat in the last eight against the 4th seed from Peru, winning 84-21 on score. The campaign ended on rather a disappointing note for Aruna Tanwar as she was ruled out of repechage stages with a hairline fracture.
Women's Singles SL4 Group Play Stage - Group D
India’s Parul Parmar lost to China’s Hefang Cheng in two straight sets of 21-8, 21-2. She lost to a comparatively young and mobile shuttler.
Men's Singles SH6 Group Play Stage - Group B
India’s Krishna Nagar took a closely fought game against Malaysian Didin Taresoh in two straight sets of 22-20, 21-10. Krishna Nagar got through to the semifinal after his Malaysian opponent from earlier Thursday retired from his 2nd match.
Women's Singles SU5 Group Play Stage
Palak Kohli won the game against Turkey's Zehra Baglar two in straight sets! A closer second game, was made to work hard but the Indian teenager defeated the world No 8 and put herself in a great position to progress to the knockouts!
Men's Singles SL3 Group Play Stage
India’s Pramod Bhagat dominated the game throughout as he took down his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksandr Chyrkov in two straight sets of 21-12, 21-9. He has reached the semifinals in the men’s singles event and will back himself to make it big.
Women's Singles SL4 Group Play Stage - Group D
Parmar could not make the second opportunity count as well. She was taken down by German shuttler Katrin Seibert in three sets of 23-21, 19-21, 21-15.
Men's Shot Put - F35 Final
The last event for Day 9 rather ended in disappointment for India as Arvind Malik failed to score a medal. The Indian shot put thrower finished in 7th position with a 13.48 in his last attempt.
Day 10 will be a day of optimism as India will bank on Pramod bhagat, Prachi Yadav, and Krishna Nagar.