Tokyo Paralympics: SAI hosts dinner for Indian contingent, gives warm send-off

 The dinner was held on Friday at the Sports Authority of India's (SAI) Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium (JLN) hostel here.

A total of 54 para-athletes from across nine sports disciplines will be featuring in the showpiece event. This is India's biggest ever contingent to the Tokyo Paralympic Games. The send-off dinner on Friday and cake were prepared by the hostel chef and his team for the athletes departing for Tokyo.

"Farewell dinner organized for #Paralympics bound contingent at SAI's JLN Hostel, Delhi. The special dinner and cake was prepared by the Chef of the JLN Hostel for the athletes heading to Tokyo. Our best wishes to them for," SAIMedia tweeted. India's powerlifters Jaideep Kumar and Sakina Khatun along with coach JP Singh left for the Tokyo Paralympic Games on Friday.Jaideep Kumar will take part in the Men's 65 kg category while Sakina Khatun will be competing in the women's 50 kg category. Both the powerlifters shall be competing for medals on August 27 in their respective categories.

Hopeful for a medal, Jaideep in a release said: "We have trained hard for this day. If everything goes well, we can create history and bring a medal home." The contingent was given a warm send-off by officials of the Sports Ministry and the Sports Authority of India. Powerlifting and badminton are the two sports that are making their debut at these Paralympic Games.

The Paralympic Games is scheduled to be held between August 24 and September 5. Thangavelu Mariyappan, Rio 2016 Gold Medal winner, will be the flag bearer of India.