Imphal, February 18: Defending champions and hosts Manipur retained the overall championship title in both boys and girls category of 11 National Junior Fencing Championship held at Khuman Lampak Indoor stadium here by bagging a total of 11 gold medal out of 12 while Punjab stood second position by bagging a solitary gold medal.

On the concluding day today, Manipur won three gold medals.

Hosts have already won 8 gold medals till yesterday.

International fencer S Jayanta and N Harina both of Manipur were declared as best fencers of the championship.

In the epee boys team event played today, Manipur drubbed Punjab to win the gold.

Semi-finalists Karnataka and Haryana won bronze medals.

In foil girls event, Manipur also defeated its rival Punjab to claim the gold medal while semi finalists - Haryana and Maharastra won bronze medals.

In an all-Manipur final bout of epee girls individual event Sandhya Devi beat Nillu to win the gold medal.

Semi-finalists Ruchi Trikha and Ranjit Kaur Gill of Punjab won bronze medals.

Manipur won a total of 11 gold medal (out of 12), 7 silver and 9 bronze medal.

The solitary gold medal was slipped to Punjab in the boys' sabre team event yesterday.

Manipur bagged 12 medals, including 10 golds, in the 10th edition in Punjab last year to win the overall team champions.

The final medal tally is Manipur - 11 gold, 7 silver, 9 bronze.

Punjab - 1 gold, 3 silver, 6 bronze.

Karnataka 1 silver, 6 bronze.

Kerala - 1 silver.

Assam - 3 bronze.

Andhra Pradesh 3 bronze.

Haryana - 2 bronze and 1 bronze medal each for West Bengal, Maharastra and Chandigarh.

The championship, held for the first time in the region with 243 fencers from 16 states participating in it, has been organised by the Manipur Fencing Association (MFA) under the auspices of the Fencing Association of India.

The contestants vied for 12 (six each for boys and girls) medals in epee, foil and sabre events in both individual and team categories.

Formal closing ceremony was held this evening at the Indoor stadium with Manipur Olympic Association president E Binoykumar as chief guest.

Chief coach of IFA Istvan Marton from Hungary, sports commissioner S Budhachandra and FAI Asiad director (administration) Jyoti TK Balu among others attended the function as guest of honour.

Cultural dances and distribution of momentos to the officials marked the closing ceremony.

State family welfare minister Bijoy Koijam and sports minister A Aza were supposed to attend the function as chief guest and president respectively.

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