The Hindu : Sport : Manipur holds sway

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 14, 2007
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Sport - Sports : General

Manipur holds sway

Bangalore : Manipur swept the champion's podium, winning 11 out of the 12 golds at stake in the National fencing championship that concluded at the Sree Kanteerava indoor stadium here on Saturday.

Punjab emerged a distant runner-up with a lone gold while host Karnataka secured the third spot.

Manipur women's team of S. Reosiha Devi, M. Sandhyarani Devi, L. Samashaki Devi and R.K. Rabika Devi won the epee team event.

In the final Manipur defeated Karnataka 15-12. The North Eastern State then won the men's sabre team event defeating Assam 15-5.

It was the ninth gold for Manipur and the script remained the same all through the day except for the concluding event — women's epee individual final — in which Punjab's Karamjeeth Kaur defeated Karnataka's Lakshmi with a 15-13 verdict.

Lakshmi rallied hard and though she always trailed by a lone point, kept pegging away though her presumption that the duel was over at 11-13 undid her grit.

At that moment when she flung her arms wide and removed her helmet, the fight had gone out of her and when she recouped for the final stretch, it was never the same.

Prior to the women's epee individual final, Manipur pocketed its tenth and eleventh gold with its men's team winning the sabre and epee events.

Final placings (top three):

1. Manipur; 2. Punjab; 3. Karnataka. — Principal correspondent

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