Day One Highlights for the 2011 Cadet Fencing World Cup Singapore: Fencing News
2011 Cadet World Cup (CWC) took place at Republic Polytechnic in Singapore on February 24. It was amazing to see that all foil medals had been taken up by Singapore women fencers on the first day of the event.
Out of the lot, the host fencer Liane Wong, who represented the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, made it all the way to the finals and got to face compatriot team-mate, Lynn Yeo, for the ultimate win. Her former Olympic experience helped her to overpower the young
opponent and bag the gold medal.
It was a cheerful moment for Liane to defeat her club team-mate in the final round of the CWC. She said, “This victory means a lot to me after suffering an ankle injury early in the fencing season, so to come back with this win especially with so many strong
competitors gives me a lot of confidence for the long season ahead.”
Consequently, Lynn Yeo ended up with a silver medal followed by Thalia Lee and Lim Qi h*i who took the bronze medals.
The President of Fencing Singapore Nicholas Fang got very surprised and inspired with the outstanding performances shown by the host women foilists. He commented, “The results clearly show the strong development pipeline the team has in place and hopefully
put us in good stead as we strive for medal winning performances in future major games.”
In the Men’s epee and sabre events, the Hong Kong fencers were found upbeat and displayed strong results by holding all the event medals except for one, which was grabbed by a Malaysian fencer, Wong Tzer Chyuan who won the bronze medal in the Men’s sabre
event of the day.
It was disappointing to know that Clive Leu, the defending champion of Singapore regrettably could not give out his best and failed in the initial rounds, not being able to qualify for the next rounds.
This event concluded on February 27, with achievements for the Singapore fencers. About 185 fencers, of age 17 and under, had taken part in this 2011 CWC, which meant it had become renowned enough to attract the top class fencers of the region, as compared
to last year’s participation of 111 fencers from around.
The CWC originated last year as a precursor to the Youth Olympic Games and about 111 fencers had participated in it. This year, 2011 CWC 2011 received participation from 185 exceptional fencers of the young age group 17-and-under from Hong Kong, Malaysia,
India and Singapore. The event covered all the three disciplines of fencing namely epee, foil and sabre.
The best young fencers of the home soil showed their interest by participating in this event. These included the country’s Youth Olympic foil participants Justin Ong and Liane Wong, who will raise their country’s flag for the foil fencing rounds. The Men’s
sabre defending champion of the last CWC Clive Leu was also back to compete for the title yet again, but failed to retain it.
Such a strong level of participation from the host country reflected the fact that the number of young fencers had grown in Singapore, comparative to last years. According to the General Manager of Fencing Singapore Ryan Quek the year 2011 had initiated
with great strength of young Singapore athletes that were observed in the National Cadet and Junior trials held last in Singapore.
He stated, “We had over 400 athletes competing at the trials, which was almost double the number in 2010. We are aiming to build on the success of last year’s Youth Olympics, as well as the strong performances at the Commonwealth Championships and Asian
Games, as we move towards our goal of winning a medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.”
Fencing Singapore is continuously being funded by sponsors and sporting bodies that has proven beneficial for the long-term targets of the fencing sport yet to be achieved.
It is expected that it keeps growing in the next few years and benefit the fencing community in the region for future events too.
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