Tokyo Paralympics: India celebrates National Sports Day by winning three medals

TOKYO: India celebrated National Sports Day by winning three medals at the Tokyo Paralympics on Sunday. While table tennis player Bhavina Patel became only the second Indian woman to win a medal at the Paralympics, Nishad Kumar clinched a silver medal in the men's high jump T47 event with an Asian record effort.

Discus thrower Vinod Kumar bagged a bronze medal in the men's F52 event with an Asian record as well.

Patel signed off with a historic silver following a 0-3 loss to world number one Chinese paddler Ying Zhou in the women's singles table tennis class 4 final in Tokyo.

Nishad Kumar cleared 2.06m to win the silver and set an Asian record. American Dallas Wise was also awarded a silver as he and Kumar cleared the same height of 2.06m.

India got its third medal when BSF man Vinod Kumar, whose father fought in the 1971 Indo-Pak war, produced a best throw of 19.91m to finish third behind Piotr Kosewicz (20.02m) of Poland and Velimir Sandor (19.98m) of Croatia.

Deepa Malik, who is the current president of Paralympic Committee of India (PCI), was the first Indian woman to win a medal in the Paralympic Games when she had claimed a silver in shotput at Rio five years back.