Olympian fencer Bhavani Devi on Monday stunned the world as she created history in Indian sports. Bhavani has become the first Indian fencer to win a medal women's sabre event at the Asian Fencing Championships in Wuxi, China. She has won a Bronze medal in the tournament after registering some historic wins.
Bhavani became the first Indian to assure the country a medal in the tournament after she defeated the reigning World Champion Misaki Emura of Japan in the quarterfinal. However, Bhavani lost her semifinal match to Uzbekistan's Zaynab Dayibekova.
The Indian lost the semifinal clash by a very close margin of 14-15 as she gave a tough fight to her opponent. Earlier, she defeated World Champion Emura by 15-10 to reach the final four.
Bhavani received a bye in the round of 64 before outclassing Dospay Karina of Kazakhstan in the round of 32. The Indian then overpowered third seed Ozaki Seri in the pre-quarterfinals by 15-11. After her win, the Fencing Association of India secretary-general Rajeev Mehta congratulated Bhavani for her achievement.
"It is a very proud day for Indian fencing. Bhavani has achieved what no one could achieve before. She is first Indian fencer to win a medal at the prestigious Asian Championships. On behalf of the entire fencing fraternity, I congratulate her and hope she brings back gold," Mehta told PTI.
Bhavani is the first Indian fencer to qualify for the Olympics. She competed in the Tokyo Olympics 2021 and also won a match there. Bhavani defeated Tunisia's Nadia Ben Azizi in the first round by 15-3. However, she faced a defeat in the second round to World No.3 Manon Brunet
