2011 National Games: Fencing – Part 2
The Shiekh Bhikhari Administrative Block of the Mega Sports Complex in Ranchi saw some tremendous fencing competitions during the 34th National Games on February 21.
The first day covered the Women’s Epee team and Women’s individual foil event along with the Men’s Epee team and Men’s individual foil competitions. All the four events were completed on the same day and the medals were accounted for the respective winning
states.
Men’s epee team preliminary round had four match-ups namely Services Vs Delhi, Madhya Pradesh Vs Karnataka, Manipur Vs Jharkhand and Punjab Vs Rajasthan. However, it was Services, Punjab, Manipur and Madhya Pradesh that made it to the semi-finals.
In the semi-finals, Punjab faced Services as Manipur took on Madhya Pradesh. After some tremendous competition it was Services and Manipur that made it to the final round to face each other.
The Men’s epee team from Manipur dominated the Services team to take the gold. Services got the well-deserved silver as the bronze medals were given to both the runner-up teams in the competition.
In the Women’s foil individual event thirteen bouts took place with individuals from Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Jharkhand, Punjab, Kerala and Karnataka.
Roji Devi Wanglembam (Manipur) faced Vijyanti Tigga (Jharkhand) in which Roji had won by 4-0 point score. She played her second bout against Usharani Devi (Manipur) and became triumphant (5-2) twice. Whereas, Vijyanti faced off two more bouts against Usharani
(0-5) and Jasmine of Punjab (1-5) but failed to succeed even a single bout. The other female foilist was Jasmine who won two of her three match-ups against Vijyanti (5-1) and Usharani (5-3) to occupy a semi-final seed after Roji Devi.
Madhya Pradesh’s Bindu Devi beat Athira Ramachandran from Kerala, Inderpreet Kaur of Punjab and Lakshmi N of Karnataka as she cruised into the semi-finals.
Inderpreet Kaur of Pujab took up the last semi-final slot as Punjab showed their dominance in the Women’s foil individual event.
The semi-final round consisted of a three-bout face-off to be played among both the qualifying pairs. Roji Devi fought against Inderpreet whereas Jasmine went up against Bindu Devi (Madhya Pradesh) to step into the finals. Among the four, Roji Devi and Jasmine
made it to the finals.
They gave a good fight to each other but Roji Devi succeeded with a score point lead of 15-12 at the end of the final bout to take the gold medal for Manipur whereas Jasmine was awarded with silver medal. The bronze medal was won by both the runners-up of
the semi-final round namely Inderpreet and Bindu.
After the conclusion of the day’s events, it was clear that Manipur’s Women’s epee team and foil individuals were dominate with their tremendous performances in the competition. Services and Punjab also showed their strengths in the events.
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