Services, Kerala retain team titles in national fencing

New Delhi, March 21 Services and Kerala retained the team titles in men's and women's section, respectively, in the 31st Senior National Fencing Championships that concluded at Uttarakhand's Rudrapur on Sunday.

Services fencers won all three team events foil, epee, and sabre. Kerala retained the women's overall title as they defeated Punjab 45-41 in sabre. The Manipur team won the foil and epee events.

On Saturday, Bhavani Devi won her ninth successive individual sabre title by defeating C. Jose Josna of Kerala 15-7. Kerala's V. Sunny Alka and K Anitha won the bronze medals.

In the individual epee final, Yashkeerat Kaur of Chandigarh was first while Tanishka of Haryana finished second. Sanasam Kiranbala Devi of Manipur and Kh. Ranggila Chanu of the Services was declared third.

Results:

Team events:

Men's Foil: 1. Services (Bicky Thokchom, Arjun, Mohammed Ismile Khan, Laishram Tomba Singh); 2. Punjab; 3. Manipur and Odisha

Men's Epee: 1. Services (C.J. Guruprakash, B. Joseph, S. Penand Singh, Pankaj Kumar Sharma); 2. Odisha; 3. Goa and Manipur

Men's Sabre: 1. Services (Sagar Sahi, Kumaresan Padma Gisho Nidhi, Manpreet Singh, Gorakh Nath Yadav); 2. Punjab; 3. Maharashtra and Haryana

Women's Foil: 1. Manipur (N. Mona Devi, W. Thoibi Devi, Khusboo Rani, Ph. Anita Chanu); 2. Kerala; 3. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu

Women's Sabre: 1. Kerala; 2. Punjab; 3. Maharashtra and Jammu & Kashmir

Individual events:

Women's Epee: 1. Yashkeerat Kaur (Chandigarh); 2. Tanishka (Haryana); 3. Sanasam Kiranbala Devi (Manipur) and Kh. Ranggila Chanu (SSB)

Women's Sabre: 1. C.A. Bhavani Devi (Tamil Nadu); 2. C. Jose Josna (Kerala); 3. V Sunny Alka (Kerala) and K. Anitha (Kerala)

( With inputs from IANS )