Sabre fencer Bhavani Devi became the first Indian fencer to secure an Olympic berth on Sunday at the ongoing Fencing World Cup.
Hosts Hungary had lost in the quarterfinals of the team event, which allowed Korea to progress to the semis, which then paved the way for Bhavani Devi to make it to the Tokyo Olympics. She qualified through the Adjusted Official Ranking (AOR) Method.
The 2 individual spots were up for grabs for the Asia & Oceania region based on the World Rankings as of 5 April, 2021.
Bhavani is ranked 45th and occupies one of the two available slots based on the ranking. Her qualification will be confirmed when the rankings are made official next month.
The Tamil Nadu fencer competes in the sabre category and was training in Italy before the coronavirus pandemic stopped global sporting activity.
In 2018, she defeated England's Emily Ruaux 15-12 to win Gold in the Commonwealth Championships and became the first Indian to do so in the tournament's 44-year history.
She won the country’s first international Gold medal in the sport in Iceland at the Women's World Cup satellite tournament in 2017.
(With inputs from ESPN)
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