Bhavani Devi, the
first-ever Indian fencer to qualify for the Olympics, lost to France’s Manon Brunet on Monday. Brunet defeated Devi 15-7 in the women’s individual sabre table of 32 round. With this, Bhavani Devi’s Tokyo Olympics stint has come to an end. 

Bhavani Devi, 27, won her first bout at the
Tokyo Olympics on Monday. She defeated Tunisia’s Nadia Ben Azizi
15-3 in the Women’s Sabre Individual Table of 64 bout.

At her debut
Olympic stint, Devi was looking confident from the start and did not allow her
lower-ranked opponent to gain any momentum over the two rounds. She not only
attacked her opponent vociferously but defended skillfully earning a few points
even while she was on the backfoot.

Chadalavada
Anandha Sundhararaman Bhavani Devi was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Bhavani’s
sporting career started in 2003. She did her schooling at Muruga Dhanushkodi
Girls Higher Secondary, Chennai, then attended St. Joseph’s Engineering College
and subsequently went on to finish a business degree from Government Brennen
College in Kerala.

Introduced to
fencing at school in 2004, Bhavani Devi joined the Sports Authority of India
(SAI) centre in Thalassery, Kerala.

Bhavani Devi’s
first international appearance was in Turkey. Only 14 years old at the time,
Devi was shown a black card for being late by three minutes. But she wasn’t
deterred.

Things started
going her way in the 2009 Commonwealth Championship in Malaysia where she
bagged bronze. Later, she clinched bronze at the 2010 International Open, 2010
Cadet Asian Championship, 2012 Commonwealth Championship, 2014 Under-23 Asian
Championship and the 2015 Flemish Open.

Her success at the
2014 Asian Championship prompted the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
Jayalalitha, to grant her financial aid to train in the United States when she
sought to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics. However, she could not win a spot
at the 2016 Games.

Intent on making
it to Tokyo, Devi trained at the Tuscan coastal city of Livorno in Italy at the
academy of coach Nicola Zanotii.

Bhavani Devi is
currently ranked World No. 45. This, however, is not her best rank as she had
climbed to the 36th spot earlier. Devi is supported by GoSports Foundation
through the Rahul Dravid Athlete Mentorship Programme.