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Indian fencers eye medal breakthrough at the Asian Games
Two promising Indian fencers, Shreya Gupta and Prachi Lohan, are part of the largest fencing contingent for the Asian Games, aiming for historic medals.
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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. 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.
Fencing is a sport where India have been looking to make inroads in recent years, considering the number of medals at stake at the Olympics. At the 2024 Paris Games, fencing had 12 medal events — six each for men and women. Bhavani Devi’s qualification in sabre for 2021 Tokyo was a breakthrough and several junior fencers have shown promise since then.
Things have changed significantly domestically. A decade ago, there was hardly any facility or knowledge about the sport. But with government funding and resources being pooled in, Indian fencers have made steady progress at the junior and sub-junior international levels.
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. 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 Asian Games, therefore, present a big opportunity for the fencers to make an impact. India have not won a medal in fencing at the Asian Games. At the previous edition, Taniksha’s brilliant run in epee ended in the quarterfinals, one step away from at least a bronze medal.
“This time we are prepared to have a crack,” says chief coach Sagar Lagu. “The competition in Asia is very strong. In fact, Asia is dominating the world if you look at the results at the Paris Olympics. So, for our teams to be in the top eight in Asia is a good indicator. We are getting good support from SAI and Fencing Association of India (FAI),” says the senior coach, who laid a strong foundation for Bhavani Devi at SAI centre in Thalassery. Bhavani is part of the squad.
Eight men and 12 women have been selected for the Games. India will compete in team events—men’s foil and sabre, and women’s sabre, epee and foil—besides the individual competitions.
At Paris, Japan topped the fencing medal tally with five medals, while South Korea and Hong Kong finished third and fourth, respectively.
Prachi says the facilities at home are now top-class and have helped the fencers develop. 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. 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. And then Khelo India helped us financially because it is an expensive sport,” says Prachi.
The 20-year-old is buoyed after her impressive showing at World Championships. “It was an amazing experience to qualify for the main table (draw). It has given me a lot of confidence. I have been working since then for the Asiad,” says the epee fencer.
Foreign exposure trips have also increased. Through TOPS, Shreya and other fencers have travelled to Hungary to train under three-time Olympic champion Aron Szilagyi.
“If we compare, say, 10 years back, we are still improving, and we still have to improve a lot. It’s a process. The more international exposure and training we get, the more we will improve. The government and federation are providing full support,” says Shreya.
The path shown by Bhavani, a sabre fencer, has also been inspirational.
“She is always motivating us as a team,” says Shreya. “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.’”
