Minister Satej Patil Announces Fencing Academy In Maharashtra With State-Of-The-Art Facilities, High Standard Coaching
Pune, 11th September 2021: Minister of State, Maharashtra; President, Fencing Association of India; President, Maharashtra Fencing Association Shri Satej Patil has announced to set up a state-of-the-art Fencing Academy in Maharashtra. The academy will enable the players to avail modern equipment and facilities and in turn help the state in producing the international players for global platforms like Olympics.
By adopting advance technology, the fencing, ancient warfare art has donned a modern face. While the art is prospering rapidly across the globe, the attempts are being made to take it to the grassroot in the state of Maharashtra, where it has a long history dating back to the Shivaji era and even before it. To avail the training by national level coaches along with state-of-the-art equipment and facilities, we have aimed at setting up Fencing Academy in Maharashtra with the motive of producing national and international players, the minister said. “I am glad to announce this on the occasion of the World Fencing Day being celebrated on September 12, 2021,” Patil said.
“Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj gave importance to the warfare while achieving his dream of swarajya. The art, which is a key in warfare has its own aesthetic beauty, has now become a popular sport in western Maharashtra and other parts of the state too. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s sword brought the revolution and helped establishing the Swarajya. As an ardent worshipper of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, I am committed to take the fencing which is synonymous to the fighter vein of Maharashtra and shares emotional bonding with the soil, to the nook and corner of the state,” he said.
Patil said that they aiming to make the academy a key centre of fencing not only in Maharashtra but across the country. He has also announced to organise All-India level league competitions of Fencing in Maharashtra to give a boost to the sport in the state.
The sport is spreading its wings across the globe very rapidly. The technology and electronic gadgets are playing a key role in the world of fencing and the transformation has attracted the young generation to it. Amid the transformation and use of the modern equipment, the cost involved in it is the major hurdle for players from rural and semi-urban areas. The cost of the equipment is high in the country because of the continuous upgradation at the international level and lack of manufacturing facilities in the country. “To make common players to be in a position to afford it and facilitate them to be able to participate in the International competitions, we are tapping the possibilities of funding from CSR corpus for this sport. It has been my endeavour to make maximum facilities available to the players by convincing industrialists, NGOs about the importance of Fencing,” the Minister said.
“We have also planned to set up state-of-the-art Fencing Training centres across the state in all divisions of Vidarbha, Marathwada, Western Maharashtra, North Maharashtra, Konkan and Mumbai. The centres will help in honing the upcoming Fencers in villages in getting scientific training and guidance. I have been trying to incorporate Fencing in the list of sport equipment of State government so that the modern equipment of the sport are easily available to the players. It will help to make the equipment available to the schools, colleges and sports clubs without any hassle and gain a pace in our endeavour of taking the sport to grassroot,” he said.
