Tokyo Paralympic

The four track and field athletes who rode the Svayam accessible vans to the airport on Wednesday include Javelin throwers Ajeet Singh, Sandeep, and Sumit Antil, and Ram Pal (high jump). Svayam is PCI's first-ever accessibility partner. It has also launched a social media campaign #AbJunoonJitega highlighting the journey of the Paralympians that cheers and celebrates them throughout the games.

Playing in the women's singles Class 3 - Group D, Sonal Patel will take on China's Li Qian. Sonal is ranked 19th and making her Paralympics debut while Qian is ranked 5th and will be playing in her fourth Paralympic Games. She has won four gold medals and one silver in her three previous Paralympic Games.

The Little One-Winged Plane, with several people helping her set up her dream by preparing the runway, fuelling her dream, made it to the centre stage soon after the ceremony started, and remained part of the narrative till it achieved its dream accompanied by a big musical number with musicians and dancers with varying impairments at the heart of it.

With two days to go for the opening ceremony, the latest figures released by the organising committee reveal a total of 15 new cases in the last 24 hours. No athlete has reported positive so far as the two cases from the Village are among the staff, though a large number of participants have reached Tokyo and some are still in quarantine.

Just two para-athletes from Afghanistan were scheduled to compete in the Games -- taekwondo player Zakia Khudadadi and track and field star Hossain Rasouli. The 23-year-old Zakia was to be the first woman ever to represent Afghanistan at the Paralympics. It's the first time Afghanistan won't be represented at the Paralympics since the Sydney Games in 2000.

The Prime Minister virtually interacted with para athletes and their families, guardians and coaches. Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports; Information and Broadcasting, Anurag Singh Thakur was present on the occasion. A total of 54 para athletes from across 9 sports disciplines will be heading to Tokyo to represent India which is sending the biggest ever contingent to the Paralympic Games.

Devendra was the one who made India proud by winning their first gold in the F-46 javelin throw even at the 2004 Athens Paralympics and followed it up with another at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. His efforts, including a world record throw of 62.15m, were recognised with a Padma Shri, making Devendra the first para-athlete to be accorded this national honour.

At least 40.5 per cent of all the athletes will be women, according to the IPC Qualification Criteria. This equates to 1,782 athletes, an increase on the 1,671 women who competed at Rio 2016 (38.6 per cent). Tokyo, which will make history as the first city to stage the Paralympic Games for a second time -- having hosted the event in 1964 -- will also see badminton, a sport with mass viewership, make its debut along with taekwondo.