India's Bhavani Devi created history on Monday by bagging the bronze medal in the Asian Fencing Championship 2023 in Wuxi, China.
Olympian Bhavani lost to Zaynab Dayibekova of Uzbekistan 14-15 in the semi-final but ensure India's first-ever medal in Asian Fencing Championship.
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Bhavani had earlier managed to upset the reigning world champion Japan's Misaki Emura 15-10 in the quarterfinal to reach the last four stage. It was her first-ever win over Emura.
Fencing Star @IamBhavaniDevi on the RISE🔥, delivers 🇮🇳's 1⃣st ever 🏅at the Asian Fencing Championships🤺
— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) June 19, 2023
The #TOPSchemeAthlete won 🥉at the Sr Asian Championship and en route also defeated World #1⃣ in the QF 🥳
Well done Champion!💪🏻🥳 pic.twitter.com/JfmwfKLwKi
Congratulating the Indian fencer, Fencing Association of India secretary general Rajeev Mehta told PTI, "It is a very proud day for Indian fencing. Bhavani has achieved what no one could achieve before. She is the 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."
With the bronze medal, Bhavani became the first Indian to qualify for Paris Olympics. She had exited from the round of 32 at the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
Enroute to the last-four stage, Bhavani had received a bye in the round of 64 before beating Dospay Karina of Kazakhstan and third seed Ozaki Seri 15-11 in the pre-quarterfinal.
