GANDHINAGAR: Radhika Awati was only 14 when she moved from Sangli, Maharashtra to Kerala’s Thalassery to pursue fencing. Given her age and the completely unknown place she was about to move to, Radhika’s relatives were apprehensive but she convinced her parents to let her go.
As she shifted her base in 2007, the first six months turned out to be torture for Radhika. With everything from food, language and weather completely different, she grew homesick and used to cry because of loneliness. But as time passed, she adapted to the new place with fencing as her sole goal. All the sacrifices she made at such a tender age started paying off as she went on to win a bagful of medals at the national level along with noticeable international achievements.
The 29-year-old fencer, who represents her adopted home Kerala in national meets, added two more medals to her ever-burgeoning trophy cabinet when she won foil gold in the individual event and silver in the team event of the 2022 National Games here at the Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar. The gold is her first at the event.
“I am thankful to my parents — Prakash and Rekha — that they accepted my request and allowed me to shift to Kerala,” an elated Radhika told this daily after winning medals. It all began when she watched a fencing demonstration in her school in Sangli. But to her dismay, Maharashtra didn’t have a good fencing training centre then. “After I saw that demonstration, fencing became my passion. Coincidentally, my school teacher moved to Thalassery next year and informed me about the centre there,” she added.
A couple of years after making the move, she made her international debut by competing in the U-17 Asian Championship in Singapore. She didn’t finish on the podium then but bettered her show by winning foil team bronze at the event next year. Since then, she had never returned empty-handed from national meets and also bagged medals in international events. She had also bagged a team silver each in the 2011 and 2015 National Games but the Gujarat edition saw her clinching the gold for the first time.
Given her long stay in the southern state, Radhika now has a Malayali accent. She can speak Malayalam fluently but still faces difficulty while reading and writing the language. “Since class 9, I studied there so it’s quite natural I got that accent. Most of my friends are from Kerala only, so now it’s like my home state.” Employed by the Kerala state government, Radhika hardly gets time to visit her home. However, her parents and brother visit her whenever they find time.
She admitted that CA Bhavani Devi’s recent success has made people aware of the sport and also made the authorities concerned to support fencing more than ever. “Bhavani has certainly made the sport popular in our country as I have seen a lot of youngsters taking up fencing nowadays. Even the government has started supporting us a lot more. I hope the trend continues and we produce fencers who can win laurels for the country in reputed international meets,” signed off the seasoned fencer.