Inputs by Drishti Baheti
Chadalavada Anandha Sundhararaman Bhavani Devi, also known as CA Bhavani Devi, made history on June 19th, 2023, by winning India’s first medal in the sabre event of the Asian Fencing Championship held at Wuxi, China.
Bhavani Devi, world number 49, won against Misaki Emura, the 2022 world champion and world number 1, in the quarter-finals. In the semi-finals, she lost to Uzbekistan’s Zaynab Dayibekova and won the Bronze. This was also Bhavani’s first win over a Japanese player.
Zaynab Dayibekova, an Olympian, went on to win the gold medal with a 15-9 win over the Republic of Korea’s world Number 28, Jisu Yoon.
About Bhavani Devi
Bhavani Devi started fencing in 2004 – 19 years ago. She was 11 at the time.
She is the only Indian Olympian ever in fencing. This means that she is the only Indian ever to have qualified for Olympic fencing.
Bhavani has also been the Commonwealth champion twice and had two Asian medals to her name but for the U-23 category. She won a silver medal in 2014 and bronze in 2015.
What is Fencing?
Fencing is an individual sport that is played with a special type of sword. While swordsmanship is an old combat (fighting) format, its evolution as a sport is relatively recent – starting from the 1880.
The first official rules of fencing were drafted in 1896 – the year in which it made its first appearance as an Olympic sport.
There are three acceptable types of swords used in fencing.
Epée – This is the heaviest sword,
Foil – This is a lighter thrusting weapon,
Sabre – This is a cutting and thrusting instrument derived from the cavalry sword.
The ground used for fencing is called “piste”. It is 46 feet * 6 feet. There is a centre line with on-guard lines six feet to either side across the width of the piste and this is where the fencers start each round from.
Scoring is done by “touching” the opponent with your sword. The equipment has sensors to record when a touch happens. The game is played in 3 rounds of 3 minutes each. The player with more touches wins. A player who has made 15 touches first automatically wins.
The rules of what is considered a “touch” vary by the type of sword used.