Imphal, March 29: Formidable Manipur asserted their supremacy in the game of fencing and clinched the overall title with 89 points in the 14th national senior fencing championship held during March 23 and 26 at Cochi in Kerala.

Over 400 participants from 22 states participated in the four-day championship, which was held for the first time in Kerala.

In the Epee team, Manipur's A Shaolin, A Romiyo, A Sanatomba, G Omega did not sweat much before defeating Haryana 14-5 to win the title.

In women Epee team, Manipur's Nillu Devi, Usharani, Gita Devi, Gaijinlu Golmei emerged third position.

In the women's Foil team, Manipur (Usharani Chanu, N Harina Devi, E Gita Devi, Ch Jileshori Devi) defeated Punjab 15-2 to emerge the winners.

Defending champion N Harina Devi of Manipur retained the title in the Sabre individual women's event defeating teammate M Sandhyarani 15-10.In the Sabre men, Manglemba Meitei of Manipur had to sweat out against C.Surjit of Indian Army before winning 15-13 points.

Manipur's Chingsomba won the third spot.

In the men's Foil event, Manipur's A Romiyo clinched the honour by defeating his own teammate H.Manglemba 15-9 points.

In the women's Foil event, A Gita Devi of Manipur edged out her teammate Harina Devi, 15-13 points.

In the men's Sabre team, Manipur (Jiten, Chingsomba Ningomiba, Manglemba, Surajkumar) lost to Punjab (G Singh, HS Sodhi, H Singh, Naveenkumar) in the final.

It can be mentioned here that Manipur won the overall champions in the 6th sub-junior national fencing championship in Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh) held during first week of March.

Manipur retain the title by slicing out eight of 12 gold medals on offer in the championship.

The state also won the title in the fifth edition in Patiala last year, bagging an identical number of gold medals.

Manipur bagged a total of 11 gold medals out of 12 in the 11th edition of the junior national fencing championship held here from February 16 to 19.The chief coach of the Fencing Association of India, Istvan Marton, who witnessed the proceedings here, had said the state's fencers were the best in the country.

The state has been dominating this sport for quite sometime.

Manipur's huge hauls in the National Games held here in 1999 and subsequent ones in Punjab and Andhra Pradesh came from this discipline.

Meanwhile, Fencing Association of India, FAI selected seven fencers from Manipur to represent India in the world junior and cadet fencing championship scheduled to be held at Polovadip in Bulgaria from March 31 to April 8.FAI also appointed Thangjam Joykumar as the manager of Indian team while Bishworjit as coach.

The selected fencers are L Sanatomba, S Jayanta, O Sovaraj, W Rojit, S Ranjit, M Usharani Devi and S Riorita.

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