Bhubaneswar, India, March 26, 2021: The accolades continue to pour in for India’s latest sports star, “fencing queen” Bhavani Devi.
The 27-year-old sabre specialist from Tamil Nadu became the first fencer from India to qualify for the Olympic Games by booking a place at Tokyo 2020 earlier this month, and has since been hailed a national treasure.
On Thursday, March 25 she was felicitated by the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) fraternity, as a KIIT student.
Kalinga TV reported that Bhavani arrived in Bhubaneswar on Thursday morning along with her mother and coach from Italy and were given a rousing welcome at Biju Patnaik Airport.
A felicitation ceremony for the ace fencer was organised at KIIT university in the presence of distinguished personalities such as Dr. Achyuta Samanta, founder of KIIT and KISS, “sprint queen” Dutee Chand, fencing officials and university leaders.
“Feeling blessed and honoured to be felicitated by Hon'ble Professor Dr. Achyuta Samanta,” she said in a Facebook post. “Happy to be in Orissa. Astonished. To see the sporting facilities available here in the state.”
In her speech at the ceremony, Bhavani said: “KIIT is lucky for me. I qualified for the Tokyo Olympics after enrolling in KIIT. Since childhood, I have been dreaming of participating in the Olympics. I faced a lot of struggles and adversities to pursue my dream.”
She bestowed all the credit for her success on her parents and coaches and stated that Dutee Chand had been her source of inspiration behind qualifying for the Olympics.
“Not for me only, Dutee has been a role model for thousands of budding athletes and sportspersons in India,” she added.
