TS fencers get a timely breather

Hyderabad: After almost two years of uncertainty, and with the Sports Authority of Telangana State (SATS) holding the reigns to keep the show and momentum going all these days in a bid to contain the corruption that had seeped in, a renewed hope has come for fencers from the entire Telangana State.  

In what is seen as a gradual return to normalcy and perhaps a vibrant administrative process being put in place, the Fencing Association of India (FCA) on Monday named an ad-hoc committee to run the heavily blacklisted Telangana Fencing Association (TFA).

It will comprise of Purushottam Modani Puru as Chairman, K Ganesh Ravikumar as the convener and A Sunitha Reddy, Dr L Sandeep Kumar Jadhav and D Bhavani Prasad as members. It should be noted that the unrelenting pursuit of Bhavani Prasad, the NIS coach and SATS nominee has paid-off.

Following the constitution of the ad-hoc committee, there is a likelihood that things would be back to normal like it was till the early part of 2016. 

That was the tumultuous period when several fencers, their guardians and even coaches from the districts, were in up in arms over the dictatorial functioning style of the then Association General Secretary Dhankishan Bhandari, and his alleged ‘partisan attitude’ when it came to selection of State teams for various national competitions.

Although the Association, as such, remained disbanded, the ‘not guilty’ claims of Dhankishan, notwithstanding, SATS stepped in to continue with conduct of tournaments, in close coordination with the Olympic Association of Telangana (OAT). 

In fact, at that time, both SATS and OAT demanded the Fencing Federation of India secretary General Rajendar Singh to blacklist Bhandari and his illegal Association.

Following the latest face-saving development, coaches and players are hopeful that the State would get back to piecing together cohesive teams, unlike in those harrowing days when talented fencers from Telangana Sports School were not even considered for selection.