Nagoya, Oct 20 India’s Bhavina Patel and Sonal Patel secured bronze medals after losing their respective women’s singles table tennis semifinals at the Asian Para Games here on Tuesday.
Bhavina lost her Class 4-5 semifinal to China’s eight-time Paralympic champion Zhang Bian 0-3, while Sonalben too went down in straight games to three-time Paralympic medallist South Korea’s Jiyu Yoon in the Class 3 semifinals.
Bhavina, a former Paralympic silver-medallist, went down 7-11, 5-11, 7-11 to end with a second successive bronze at the mega-event.
She had won a silver in the 2018 edition of the Games. The 40-year-old Bian was a silver medallist at the previous Asian Para Games.
The 39-year-old Indian veteran from Gujarat is also a former Commonwealth Games gold-winner.
Class 4-5 classification is for athletes who have full upper body control but are on a wheelchair due to leg or lower-limb impairments.
Sonalben, who won the doubles silver at the Jakarta edition of the Games in 2018, was defeated 7-11 5-11 6-11 by defending champion Yoon.
Class 3 is a wheelchair category for athletes with poor sitting balance and limited trunk control, but normal or near-normal arm and hand function.
(PTI News)
