New Delhi, India, March 15, 2021: Bhavani Devi became the first Indian fencer to qualify for the Olympics. The sabre specialist secured an Olympic spot at the Tokyo Games due to events at the Sabre Fencing World Cup in Budapest on Sunday, March 14.
Hosts Hungary lost in the quarterfinals of the team event, allowing Korea to progress to the semis. This opened the door for Olympic qualification for the 27-year-old Devi who qualified through the Adjusted Official Ranking (AOR) method.
Two individual spots were up for grabs for the Asia and Oceania region based on the projected world rankings for the next issue set for April 5, 2021. Devi is ranked 45th and occupies one of the two available slots based on the ranking. Her qualification will be confirmed when the rankings are made official next month.
Indian Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju was one of the first to congratulate Devi posting on Twitter: “Congratulations to Indian fencer Bhavani Devi who has qualified for Tokyo Olympics! She has become the first ever Indian fencer to achieve the feat. My best wishes to @IamBhavaniDevi.”
The Tamil Nadu fencer is an eight-time national champion. She failed to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics but stepped up her efforts to secure qualification for Tokyo 2020 and trained in Italy under coach Nicollo Zanotti.
The first Indian fencer to win gold at an international event, the trailblazer did not let the COVID-19-enforced lockdown affect her preparations and had trained with coach Zanotti having online sessions prior to leaving for Italy.
Her former Indian coach Sagar Lagu said: “I am delighted for her. She went through tough times but hard work gave her the results. She did not give up though she faced hard times early in her career.”
