India’s medal hope fencer Bhavani Devi lost to China’s Shao Yaqi in the quarter-finals of the women’s sabre fencing event in Hangzhou on Tuesday and missed out on a medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Tuesday.
Ranked 32nd in the world, Bhavani Devi lost to the world No. 12 Chinese fencer 15-7 at the Hangzhou Dianzi University Gymnasium. Appearance in the semi-finals would have confirmed a bronze for Bhavani Devi and India’s first medal in fencing at the Asian Games.
Earlier, Bhavani Devi came out of the pool stage unscathed with five wins on the trot and earned herself the top seed in the knockouts.
The 30-year-old Bhavani Devi began with a 5-2 win over Juliet Jie Min Heng of Singapore. She scored 5-1 wins over Alhsna Abdulrahman Alhammad of Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan’s Zaynab Dayibekova and Roksana Khatun of Bangladesh. Bhavani Devi also beat Karina Display of Kazakhstan 5-3.
While four of Bhavani Devi’s opponents in the pool stage were ranked below her, Uzbekistan’s Zaynab Dayibekova, the reigning Asian champion who beat Bhavani Devi in the semi-finals of the Asian Fencing Championships earlier this year, was ranked 26th.
Bhavani Devi had lost to Zaynab Dayibekova at the Asian championships in Wuxi, China in June but became the first Indian fencer to win a medal at the continental meet with a bronze. She had also defeated world champion and No. 1 Misaki Emura of Japan in the quarter-finals of the same event.
Due to her unbeaten run in the pool stage, Bhavani Devi earned herself a bye in the table of 32 as the top seed and beat Thailand’s Tonkhaw Phokaew 15-9 in the table of 16. Her run then ended in the quarters.
Bhavani Devi competed at Tokyo 2020 and is the only fencer to represent India at the Olympic Games.
Besides sabre events, fencing at the Asian Games includes competitions for foil and epee disciplines. Asian Games debutant Taniksha Khatri made it to the quarter-finals in the women’s epee but fell short of a medal after losing to Man Wai Vivian Kong of Hong Kong China on Sunday.
Taniksha Khatri will also lead India’s challenge in the women’s epee team event alongside Ena Arora, Yashikeerat Kaur Hayer and Jyothika Dutta on Wednesday.
