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The Indian contingent was disappointing, to say the least in fencing at the Asian Games 2023.
Taniksha Khatri, Ena Arora, Yashkeerat Kaur Hayer and Jyotika Dutta took part in the women’s epee event. Dev, Arjun, Bibish and Akash Kumar participated in the men’s foil event. India’s top-ranked fencer Bhavani Devi was the only one in the women’s sabre event.
Bhavani was expected to win a medal, but she crashed out after losing 7-15 in the quarterfinals at the Hangzhou Dianzi University Gymnasium to China’s Shao Yaqi, who was also a silver medalist in Jakarta in 2018. Ranked No.32 in the world, Bhavani won five matches on the trot in the pool stage.
She defeated Singapore’s Juliet Jie Min Heng 5-2 in the first match and made a brilliant start in the Asian Games. The Indian fencer followed it up with a 5-1 victory over Saudi Arabia’s Alhsna Abdulrahman Alhammad. Thereafter, the 30-year-old got the better of Bangladesh’s Roksana Khatun and Kazakhstan’s Karina Dospay before going down in the quarters at the hands of Yaqi.
Asian Games 2023: Indian athletes fail to win medals in fencing
In the men’s foil event, Dev, Arjun, Akash Kumar and Bibish Kathiresan made their debuts in the Asian Games. Kathiresan, who also happened to be the top-ranked player among the four, made his way through to the table of 16. Dev, on the other hand, could go beyond the table of 32.
In the women’s epee event, Taniksha and Ena failed to bring home medals for India. Taniksha advanced to the quarterfinals before losing. Ena, on the other hand, finished her campaign after losing to Taniksha in the first bout of the knockout stages.
Back in 1974, Fencing was introduced in the Asian Games and since then, China and South Korea have mostly dominated. India are yet to win a fencing medal in the Asian Games.
