Pramod wins, Palak has a bad outing

World No.1 shuttler Pramod Bhagat made an impressive start to his campaign in the men’s singles competition but young Palak Kohli endured a tough day at the Tokyo Paralympics, here on Wednesday.

Pramod, the reigning world champion, outwitted fellow Indian Manoj Sarkar 21-10, 21-23, 21-9 in his men’s singles Group A Class SL3 opener that lasted 56 minutes. Earlier, Palak had a difficult day at the office as she suffered defeats in both her women’s singles and mixed doubles matches. Up against Japan’s Ayako Suzuki, the 19-year-old Palak lost 4-21, 7-21 in just 19 minutes in a Group A women’s singles Class SU5 match.

Pramod and Palak went down fighting against second seeds Lucas Mazur and Faustine Noel in the mixed doubles Group B contest. The Indian duo, competing in the SL3-SU5 class, lost 9-21, 21-15, 19-21 to the French team in 43 minutes.

Shooter Avani Lekhara, who became India’s first female gold medallist at the Paralympics a few days ago, failed to replicate her success as she crashed out in the qualification round of the mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 event. Avani was not at her usual best, finishing a disappointing 27th with a score of 629.7 and crashing out in the third round. In the men’s event, Sidhartha Babu and Deepak Kumar had horrible outings, finishing 40th and 43rd respectively with scores of 625.5 and 624.9.

Swimmer Suyash Jadhav endured a disappointing outing in the men’s 100m breaststroke SB7 final as he was disqualified for a rule violation.

Suyash was disqualified as he didn’t comply with World Para Swimming’s rule number 11.4.1, which states that “at any time prior to the first breaststroke kick after the start and after each turn, a single butterfly kick is permitted.” The 27-year-old Suyash, whose two hands were amputated below the elbow at the age of 11 due to electrocution, was found to have “performed more than one fly kick after the turn”.