India’s fencers finished with an overall tally of 13 medals in the Junior and Cadet Commonwealth Fencing Championships being held at Newcastle, England. The impressive tally which also included 3 gold medals propelled them to second in the medal tally.
England were the best participating nation by a distance. The hosts finished with 29 medals – 13 gold, 9 silver, 7 bronze.
On the last day of the competition, the girls team (Sundaraj Soumya, Sania, Husnapreet Kaur, Shivani) won the gold medal in the junior sabre event to propel India up the medal table. They defeated England 45-43 in a close final to seal the top spot on the podium.
The junior boys foil team (Kathiresan Bibis, Harsheel Sharma, Sukham Ningthomba, Avinash Barode) also won the bronze medal on the final day. In the match for the 3rd and 4th places, India beat Scotland 45-38 to come out on top.
India had sent a 62-member squad for the event.