Selangor Open Fencing tourney brings forth intense duels

LOCAL duo Joshua Koh I-Jie and Nurul Ariezat Nazree prevented foreign domination at the eighth Selangor Open Fencing Championships that concluded at the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) Indoor Sports Arena last Sunday.

In the final of the men's epee, Koh provided the home crowd with reasons to jump for joy when he emerged as the champion with a commanding 15-7 win.

Swashbuckling: The women contenders inacton in the women's foilcategory.

En route to the final, the promising Selangor lad outclassed top-ranked qualifier Andi Firmansyah of Indonesia followed by Singapore's Kuan Yew Ken in the quarter-finals (15-10) and semi-finals (15-9) respectively.

In the men's sabre, Ariezat cruised through to set up a final encounter against Huang Bairong of Singapore.

The fourth ranked qualifier Ariezat faced little resistance to chalk up an easy 15-4 win over his challenger in the final.

On the opening day, the visitors from the Republic representing various clubs and the national set-up got off to a good start and swept three events at stake.

They triumphed in the women's epee and women's sabre through Teng Naan See and Noelle Tay respectively.

And Zhang Zhenggang of Raffles Junior College also subdued Malaysia's Gilbert Bekking scoring a 15-7 win in the men's foil final.

Singapore Fencing Masters chief coach Jeffrey Lopez said they have been competing at the meet since the inaugural event.

“The event has always been a springboard and platform for our fencers to compete against other fencers in the region. They also learn and pick up the different variation in strategies. It is important to be able to adapt and change their styles to counter their opponents,” added Lopez, who formed the club 13 years ago.

For the recent meet, a total of 75 fencers from the Singapore Fencing Masters were in the fray.

Lopez said his young trainee Shawn Chia, who is the national boys' Under-17 champion, did well to advance to the quarter-finals of the men's foil.

“Another junior (Matthew Lam) did not progress to the knockout stage of the men's foil. The two other notable names from our club who represented the national team are Samson Lee and Lim Wei Wen. Both competed in the men's epee,” he added.

The two-day meet organised by Selangor Amateur Fencing Association (SAFA) drew more than 200 fencers from 23 teams including foreign participants from Australia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore.

Besides the Klang Valley based exponents, local entries also came from Kedah, Negri Sembilan and Sarawak.

SAFA president Chan Pak Choong said they were pleased with the good turnout and attracted quality fencers from the region.

“We have continued to host an international standard competition over the years – with about 40 volunteers assisting in managing the meet – because our aim is to provide our local fencers with the right exposure so they can compete at high level,” added Chan.