Indian fencer Bhavani Devi bags silver in Belgium meet
Indian fencer C. A. Bhavani Devi bagged the silver medal in the women's sabre individual event at the Tournoi satellite competition in Ghent, Belgium on Sunday. She has another eight competitions, including the World Cup, Grand Prix, and satellite events lined up until the end of March.
Indian sabre fencer C. A. Bhavani Devi secured the silver medal in the women’s sabre individual category in the Tournoi satellite competition (World level) at Ghent, Belgium, on Sunday. The Chennai-born fencer lost to Bashta Anna of Azerbaijan 10-15 in the final. The 26-year-old is supported by GoSports Foundation through the Rahul Dravid athlete mentorship Programme. Bhavani blamed her loss on a strategy failure in the first half of the game which widened the gap between her and her opponent.
"The strategy that my coach and I had planned didn’t work out in the first half and I ended up trailing 2-8. We tried a different strategy in the second half that worked out better and I ended the half on 8-7. Had I played the first half well, maybe I could’ve won the gold. But we are happy with this performance," Bhavani told Sportstar.
She said that she will gain three points, which will “hopefully” take her “four or five positions up in the World rankings”. She had got the better of Italy's Martina Pertaglia in the semi-finals and is currently ranked No. 43 in the senior women’s sabre individual category.
Bhavani continued that she has another eight competitions, including the World Cup, Grand Prix, and satellite events lined up until the end of March that will be considered for Olympic qualification. The top two players from the Asian zone in the World rankings will qualify for the 2020 Olympics to be held in Tokyo, Japan.
The Indian fencer had reached the quarterfinals stage of a satellite tournament in Bulgaria last week. It was her first international competition of the season. She will next be in action in a satellite tournament in Reykjavik, Iceland, next week.