Bhagat cruises into semifinals
Other Indian shuttlers, including Suhas Yathiraj, Tarun Dhillon and Krishna Nagar also had a good day in office as they opened their men’s singles campaign impressively.
Tokyo, Sept. 2: World No.1 Pramod Bhagat sailed into the men’s singles semifinals after beating Ukraine’s Oleksandr Chyrkov in his second group A match of the Tokyo Paralympics badminton event here on Thursday as the country’s shuttlers expectedly produced strong performances. The 33-year-old Bhagat, also a reigning world champion, saw off Chyrkob 21-12, 21-9 in 26 minutes to top his group and enter the last four in class SL3.
“I was in the groove today and played really well. Oleksandr Chyrkov is a good player and played some good strokes in the match. I am very happy that I have reached the semi-finals,” Bhagat said.
Bhagat and Palak Kohli will play Siripong Teamarrom and Nipada Saensupa in mixed doubles class SL3-SU5 on Friday.
Other Indian shuttlers, including Suhas Yathiraj, Tarun Dhillon and Krishna Nagar also had a good day in office as they opened their men’s singles campaign impressively.
While Suhas and Tarun notched up easy victories over Germany’s Jan Niklas Pott and Thailand’s Siripong Teamarrom in SL4 class respectively, second seed Krishna outwitted Malaysia’s Taresoh Didin in SH6 class.
Young Palak also overcame Turkey’s Zehra Baglar in her second women’s singles match of group A.
SHOOTER JAKHAR
ENDS FIFTH
Indian shooter Rahul Jakhar signed off 5th in the P3 mixed 25m pistol SH1 event.
The 35-year-old Jakhar was eliminated at the end of the seventh series in the finals after qualifying second with a score of 576, which included 284 in precision and 292 in the rapid stage. It is by far his best international performance.
PRACHI QUALIFIES FOR
CANOE SPRINT SEMIS
India’s Prachi Yadav on Thursday qualified for the semifinals of canoe sprint event in women’s Va’a single 200m.
The 26-year-old from Bhopal recorded a time of one minute, 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 here.
The semifinal will be held on Friday.
Meanwhile, India’s Arvind ended seventh in the men’s shot put F35 event.
Aruna Tanwar was on Thursday forced to withdraw from the repechage round of the women’s taekwondo K44-49kg class because of severe injuries sustained during her opening bout of the Games despite which she fought in the quarterfinals.