Junior Commonwealth Fencing Championship bronze medal winner Nivediya L. Nair in action in at the Kerala School Sports & Games in Kochi on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: THULASI KAKKAT

Nivediya L. Nair was merely eight years old and mainly into athletics when fencing captured her imagination during her childhood back in Idukki. The excitement of trying a new game involving sword play and a bit of cajoling on the part of her coach drew her to the sport. She was not to rue the decision.

A decade later, she boasts two medals – an individual bronze medal and a team silver medal in the Épée category fencing – at the Commonwealth Junior And Cadet Fencing Championships held in New Zealand this July, besides the rich experience of having participated in Asian and world cadet fencing championships.

Defending champion in the fencing Épée category, the higher secondary student at the Government Brennen Higher Secondary School, Kannur, was easily one of the marque participants at the fencing competition that got under way at the Kerala School Sports & Games 2024 here on Tuesday. “More students are getting drawn to the sport than at the time when I took it up,” she said having won direct entry into the knockout stage this year, thanks to her gold in the previous edition of the sports meet.

The large number of participants queuing up for registration ahead of the fencing competition at Ernakulam Town Hall was validation enough that though not counted among the more popular sports, the combat event has won not an insignificant following. And most of them were introduced to it by the Olympic Games.

Nakshathra A.R. was in ninth standard when she was captivated by the valiant display of C.A. Bhavani Devi, the first Indian fencer to qualify for an Olympics, at Tokyo Olympics held in 2021. “I joined a fencing academy in Thiruvananthapuram and has been practising four days a week since then,” said Nakshathra, a higher secondary student who had since then competed at the national level.

Quick thinking, reflexes

The sport’s demand of quick thinking and sudden reflexes was what mesmerised Adithya Sarosh, a participant from the Government Vocational Higher Secondary School, Kallara, Thiruvananthapuram. She is now determined to pursue it beyond her academic days.

Prabhulash P.L., a fencing coach who has accompanied students from his academy here, observed that the grace marks at the school and university level during admissions and reservation of at least one vacancy to fencers in government service have helped to draw more students to the sport. A disciple of the legendary fencing coach S. Radhakrishnan, he recollected how his academy had just one student when it opened in 2021, a number that has soared to 35 since then.

An array of relatively costly equipment, including blades, gloves, masks, breeches, lamé – electrically conductive jacket, and chest guard seem to have served as a dampener though.