Tried To Compete Even With Injuries To Qualify For Olympics: Bhavani Devi

The first Indian fencer to qualify for the Olympics, CA Bhavani Devi on Wednesday recalled that she was so desperate to make the cut for the Tokyo Games that she competed in tournaments to improve her rankings despite nursing injuries.

Bhavani qualified for the Tokyo Games through the Adjusted Official Ranking (AOR) Method. Two individual spots were up for grabs for the Asia and Oceania region based on the World Rankings as of April 5, 2021. She is ranked 45th and occupies one of the two available slots based on the ranking.

Bhavani, who failed to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics, said she didn’t know how to pick and choose tournaments and so competed in all of them.