Fencing: Bhavani Devi wins Charlellville National Competition in France 

Indian fencing star Bhavani Devi, who made history at Tokyo 2020 when she became the first Indian fencer to compete at the Olympics, has scored another notable triumph.

She won the Charlellville National Competition in France in the individual women's sabre event.

"Won the Charlellville National Competition, France in the Women's Sabre individual. Many thanks to coach Christian Bauer, Arnaud Schneider, and all teammates. Congratulations to all for a great start of the season," she tweeted after winning the competition.

She is currently ranked 50th in the world and is the top-ranked fencer from India. However, her individual best ranking had been 36 in 2016-17. The fencer has already started preparing for the Asian Games which is slated to take place in 2022.

"We have the Asian Championship, a couple of other championships, the Asian Games next year and more. My focus will be to do well at the Asian Games. Most of our competitors remain the same over the course of tournaments and the experience of playing against some of them at the Olympics will hold me in good stead for another big stage such as the Asian Games," she had stated earlier.

Bhavani was the first fencer from India to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics. In fact, she even won the first round beating Tunisia’s Nadia Ben Azizi 15-3 to move into the Round of 32. She took an 8-0 advantage in the first period and finished the match in six minutes and 14 seconds.

However, she was thwarted in her tracks in the second round when she went up against the world No. 3 and Rio Olympian Manon Brunet of France. She lost the match 15-7 as Manon bagged most of the points via 'right of way'.

In sabre, the ‘right of way’ rule is used to determine which fencer gets awarded the points in case both register a touch. Under this rule, priority is given to the fencer who initiates the attack.

Bhavani Devi is expected to return to action in November in the France Grand Prix.