A popular combat sport featuring sword fighting, fencing is a group of three disciplines- foil, epee and sabre. Fencing started in India in 1974 with the foundation of the Fencing Association of India, but it was only in 1997 that it was recognised by the Indian Government, making it a comparatively new sport discipline in India.

However, Indian fencers were quick to make their mark in the international sports arena. In 2016, the Indian contingent won two silver and three bronze medals in the Asian Junior and cadet Fencing Championship held in Damam in Saudi Arabia.
Indian fencing came of age the very next year, when CA Bhavana Devi won a gold medal in the sabre event of the Turnoi Satellite Fencing tournament held at Reykjavik in Iceland. She added yet another feather in her cap by winning a bronze medal in the 2023 Asian Fencing Championships held in Wuxi, China.
The World Cadets and Juniors Fencing Championships are conducted annually by the Switzerland based International Fencing Federation, commonly known by the acronym FIE derived from its French name [Fédération Internationale d'Escrime].
Both events are held at the same venue, Junior World fencing Championship is for participants up to 20 years of age, while the age limit for those competing in Cadet World Fencing Championship is 17 years.
The Indian contingent selected for this tournament being held from April 12 to 20 at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia has recently been announced and with the names of Sherya Gupta, Sufiyan Waheed Sohil and Chavvi Sharma belonging to the union territory [UT] of J&K figuring in this list makes its people really proud.
This fencer trio from J&K deserves due appreciation and their inclusion in the Indian contingent bears testimony to the hard work they have put in and their extraordinary determination to excel. Ms Gupta is the current junior and national champion, while Sohil is ranked seventh as well as junior team medallist and Ms Sharma is bronze medal winner in the cadets’ national fencing championship.
In their pursuit for excellence, both Ms Gupta and Sohil have benefited immensely from the ‘Khelo [Play] India’ programme introduced by the government to revive sports culture in the country and establish India as a great sporting nation. They are presently undergoing rigorous training at National Center of Excellence [NCoE] at Gujrat and Patiala respectively. Ms Sharma is being coached in J&K by former international medallist and current coach Ujjwal Gupta.
The importance that the government is attaching to the ‘Khelo India’ initiative can be gauged from the fact that from an allotment of Rs 600 crores in Financial Year [FY] 2023, the allocation has been increased by a whopping 65 percent to Rs 1,000 crores in the current FY. This will ensure better facilities for training as well as enable sportspeople to acquire skills that help them to compete in and win international sporting events.
The UT of J&K has been producing several sportspersons and many of them have received international recognition in various disciplines. This positive channelisation of energy is indeed a very heartening development that has rectified the incorrect portrayal of Kashmiri youth as a gun wielding or stone pelting lot. Today, be it winter sports, martial arts, football, cricket, equestrian sports shooting or chess, both boys and girls of J&K have proved that they are second to none.

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