No fairy tale finish for swordsmen

NO ONE gave them a chance, but the men’s foil team defied the odds to secure the silver medal.

The quartet of Hans Yoong Wei Shen, Tristan Cheng Xing Han, Chong Hong Li and Kaerlan Vinod Kamalanathan had less than three months of training prior to the Games.

However, they still managed to shock the Philippines 45-40 in the semi-finals but their fairy tale finish was not meant to be as Singapore proved too strong in the final, winning 45-28 to secure gold yesterday.

The experienced Hans, who had won a bronze in the individual event and was instrumental in guiding the young team to the final, was happy to have achieved a podium finish despite being written off.

“We were aiming for gold and tried our best. Nobody expected us to win silver and it is a great achievement for us,” said Hans.

“We won a bronze in the team event in 2019 and it’s good to improve on that.

“I won silver in the individual that year and it’s team silver this time”

The result is expected to boost Hans, 21, and his teammates before next year’s Games in Cambodia where they will be hoping to dethrone favourites Singapore.

Team manager Kimberly Janet Ansibin, understandably, was overjoyed.

“I am proud of the boys. Hans was training in the US but the other boys were based in Malaysia where they had less than three months of training. The silver medal is a pleasant surprise,” said Kimberly.

Malaysia won a silver and three bronze medals in the competition.