Bhavinaben Patel on Sunday became only the second Indian woman to win a medal at the Paralympics after she 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 here. Following her historic win, the athlete got a loud shoutout from the Bollywood fraternity. Actors like Taapsee Pannu, Anil Kapoor, Ishaan Khatter and Abhishek Bachchan among others took to social media to dedicate posts to Patel.
Akshay Kumar took to Twitter and said he marvels at the 34-year-old wheelchair player's "talent and perseverance". "Thank you for making history with your medal, #BhavinaPatel. It amazes me to see your talent and perseverance. #Paralympics #Tokyo2020."
Taking to her Twitter Taapsee Pannu wrote, "It's a silver !!!!! N that too a maiden one in TT! Congratulations Bhavinaben!" Whereas, veteran actor Anil Kapoor took to his Instagram story and shared a victory picture of Bhavina from the match. Alongside the snap, he wrote, "Congratulations."
Abhishek Bachchan also hailed Bhavina by sharing her winning picture from the match and writing a special note for her on his Instagram story. "Glory, once again! Take a bow, Bhavina Patel, for winning silver with a stellar performance at #TokyoParalympics," Bachchan wrote alongside the snap. Vicky Kaushal too took to his Instagram story to applaud Bhavina by sharing her picture holding the Indian national flag. Alongside the snap, he wrote, "Bhavina Patel creates history, wins the silver in the Table Tennis women's singles Class 4 event at the Tokyo Paralympics."
Abhishek Bachchan's post
Anik Kapoor's post
Vicky Kaushal's post
Ishan Khatter, Neha Dhupia, Pooja Bhatt, and other stars from the film industry also showered Bhavina Patel with heartfelt wishes for winning the silver medal at Tokyo Paralympics.
The 34-year-old Patel's impressive run at the Games ended with a fighting 7-11 5-11 6-11 loss to Zhou, a two-time gold medallist, in the women's singles summit clash which lasted 19 minutes.
With this medal, Indian team opened its account at the Games. Patel, who was diagnosed with polio when she was 12 months old, started playing the sport 13 years ago at the Blind People's Association at Vastrapur area of Ahmedabad where she was a student of ITI for people with disabilities.
There, she saw visually impaired children playing table tennis and decided to take up the sport. Patel hoped her success will help change the perception of people towards disability and create more opportunities.
-- with inputs from agencies
