Both promising talents are now part of India’s 20-member fencing contingent — the biggest ever the country will send to the Asian Games in Japan. New Delhi: When Shreya Gupta took up fencing, she trained on the stairs of a cricket stadium in Jammu. Prachi Lohan, from Jind, Haryana, had to share weapons during her initial days.
This year, Prachi and Taniksha Khatri became the first Indian women’s epee fencers to reach the main table of 64 at the Senior World Fencing Championships in Hong Kong. Eight men and 12 women have been selected for the Games. The Indian team has been preparing at the newly built High Performance Centre for Fencing at NIS Patiala, which came up this year at a cost of ₹ 22.83 crore.
Because it is an expensive sport,” says Prachi, and then Khelo India helped us financially. The results at the recent Commonwealth Championships were also encouraging. The men’s foil team finished eighth at the Asian Championships in New Delhi recently. “The competition in Asia is very strong. In fact, Asia is dominating the world if you look at the results at the Paris Olympics. Bhavani is part of the squad. India will compete in team events—men’s foil and sabre, and women’s sabre, epee and foil—besides the individual competitions. The centre has an indoor fencing hall equipped with international-standard pistes and electronic scoring systems. Sports science support, advanced strength and conditioning and recovery facilities are well integrated in the centre. “Fencing is much more popular now. When I started fencing, we did not have much equipment. We did not have the electronic scoring system at my club. The weapons were limited and we used to share. Two years into the sport, around COVID time, the infrastructure started getting a little better. “We have played together in various team events for the last two years. And even when we lose, she is always like, ‘You have to give your best, irrespective of the opponent or rankings.’”
“This time we are prepared to have a crack,” says chief coach Sagar Lagu. So, for our teams to be in the top eight in Asia is a good indicator,” says the senior coach, who laid a strong foundation for Bhavani Devi at SAI centre in Thalassery. Prachi says the facilities at home are now top-class and have helped the fencers develop. “She is always motivating us as a team,” says Shreya.
