Sakina Khatun finished fifth in the women's 50kg powerlifting finals, her best attempt being 14kg behind the medal position.
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India’s Sakina Khatun finished a respectable 5th in the Women’s 50kg Powerlifting event at the Tokyo Paralympics 2020. The Indian para-athlete’s best lift was at 93kg. China’s Hu Dandan clinched the gold while Egyptian Rehab Ahmed won the silver and Great Britain’s Olivia Broome bagged the bronze.
The Indian started off well by lifting 90kg but then failed in her next two attempts to lift 93 kg, and fell out of medal contention as four other lifters crossed the 100kg-mark. Champion Hu Dandan’s best lift was at 120kg while the runner-up Ahmed also recorded a personal best lift of 120kg. Meanwhile, the Briton’s best was 107kg.
The Indian can be proud of her achievement as she became the first Indian female powerlifter to compete at the Paralympics. The Bangalore-born Paralympian is the only female para-athlete in Indian history to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games. She also made India proud by winning silver in the Para Powerlifting World Cup in Dubai.
Earlier in the day, Indian archer Jyoti Balyan finished 15th out of 24 in the Women’s Individual Compound- Open Ranking Round of the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics. She scored 58 in her last set of arrows and achieved her season’s best score of 671. Over the years, the Indian has gone on to become one of the top female para-athletes in the world. She was part of the seventh Fazza Para Archery Tournament in Dubai, which had the world’s top 10 archers back in February, 2021.
China’s Lin Yueshan started brightly with 60 points, while Jyoti scored 56 points to place herself at the 13th spot. After 18 of 72 arrows, the Indian got better as she moved to the 11th spot with 168 points. After Round 6, Jyoti was placed at the 13th spot. She had three sets of 56 followed by a couple of 55s. Russian Paralympic Committee archer Stepanida Artakhinova was placed on top of the table.
Jyoti was consistent with her gameplan as she got a 56 and 55 to her name, but the other archers were scoring better with 57s. Stepanida broke the Paralympic record with a score of 694 to finish on top of the table.
The Indian was consistent through the qualification round with 55s and 56s. Towards the end, she even scored 57 and 58 to finish at the 15th spot. The final flourish should boost Jyoti’s confidence going ahead.
