Manipur has seven golds in kitty

Bangalore, Jan 12 (UNI) In a clean sweep, Manipur sabers bagged gold medals in all the events so far in the 17th National Fencing Championships here today, taking its tally to seven.

Manipur lifted the gold medal in the men's foil team event by crushing Assam 15-6. The North Eastern State had trounced Punjab 15-6 and defeated Andhra Pradesh 15-13 on the way to the finals.

Army and Punjab had to be content with the bronze.

In the men's saber individual event, Chingsomba of Manipur bagged the gold, after managing to overpower Ujawal Gupta of Jammu and Kashmir 15-13.

The Manipur women's team defeated Punjab in the team championship in Foil event 15-10 in the title round. Enroute, they had trounced Assam 15-6 in the semifinal and Karnataka 15-4 in the quarters.

While Punjab took the silver, Haryana and Assam bagged the bronze.

In the women's individual event, Manipur's N Harinia bagged the gold, overcoming stiff resistance from Sandeepa of Punjab 15-11.

Karnataka's Geetha and N Usharani of Assam won the bronze medal.

Earlier, in the men's Epee individual event, Jayantha of Manipur defeated statemete Santambao by a narrow 15-14 margin to win the gold. In the semifinal, Jayantha beat Surender of the Army 15-7, while Santambao overpowered Harpreet Singh of Punjab 15-11.

Santambao took the silver, and Harpreet and Surender won the bronze.

UNI