Sports Ministry approves Rs 8.16 Lakh for fencer Bhavani Devi to compete in four FIE World Cups

Tokyo Olympian and the first-ever Indian fencer to represent the country at the Olympics, Bhavani Devi is set for participation in four international competitions ina 2022. An overall amount of Rs 8.16 Lakh has been sanctioned by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports via the Annual Calendar for Training and Competition (ACTC) to facilitate Bhavani’s participation in the competitions.

Bhavani, who won her first round individual sabre match before going down in the Round of 32 match at the Tokyo games earlier this year, will be taking part at a training camp in Tbilisi, Georgia from January 4, before competing at the International Fencing Federation (FIE) World Cup in the same city from January 14 to 16. She will then be competing at the World Cup in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, scheduled from January 28 to 29. Bhavani, currently ranked 55 in the world in the individual women’s sabre category, will then compete at the following FIE World Cups in Greece and Belgium on March 4 to 5 and March 18 to 19 respectively.

The Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, earlier this year, approved an ACTC amount of Rs 3 Crores to the Fencing Association of India (FAI) for the financial year 2021-22, until March 2022. As per the ACTC mechanism, the Government of India releases grants to all the recognized National Sports Federations (NSFs) every financial year, after going through the NSFs long-term projections, list of national and international competitions/camps and athlete training programs.