Bhavina clinches 3 gold at Egypt Para TT meet

Ahmedabad: Rio Paralympics silver medallist Bhavina Patel underlined her dominance by clinching three gold medals at the recently concluded ITTF (Fa20) PARA OPEN, at Giza, Egypt.
Bhavina secured the women's singles title in Class 3-5 by beating compatriot Sonal Patel in a closely-fought encounter at the Hassan Moustafa Sports Hall. The 35-year-old won 13-11, 11-6, 13-11.That she won the gold medal without dropping a game across the group matches and knockout encounters shows how dominant Bhavina was.
In para table tennis, classes 1-5 are for wheelchair athletes. Athletes in Class 4 category, one in which the Commonwealth Games gold medallist participated, have fair sitting balance and fully functional arms and hands, with their impairment due to a lower spinal-cord lesion or cerebral palsy.
Bhavina and Sonal teamed up to win the yellow metal by accumulating eight points from four league matches in the women's doubles Class 10 category. The duo from Gujarat won all four matches to top the league stage with eight points. Bhavina and Sonal eased past Sangeeta Sutariya and Shital Darji 11-2, 11-3, 11-3 to win their opening match. In their second match, the duo defeated Lamiaa Mohamed and Faiza Mahmoud 11-5, 12-10, 11-9. The third league match saw the pair beating Maona Abdelhak and Karally Sabah 11-3, 11-3, 11-3. The fourth and last league match saw Bhavina and Sonal upstaging Kazakhstan duo Alexandra Stepanova and Saule Aidarkhanova 11-1, 11-4, 11-5.
In the mixed doubles, Bhavina teamed up with Jashvant Chaudhary to win the gold medal in Class 10 category. The pair defeated local pair Hassan Tolba and Faiza Mahmoud 11-4, 8-11, 11-5, 11-8 in the final.
Sonal also bagged a gold medal in the mixed doubles Classes 4-7 category. In the summit clash, Sonal and Ramesh Vaja Chaudhary defeated the French pair of Flora Vautier and Francois Geuljans 3-0.
A tight opening game was followed by a close second game following which the Indian duo eased to a 13-11, 11-9, 11-3 triumph.