NAGOYA – In the last decade, Singapore has firmly established itself as a fencing powerhouse in the region with supremacy at the SEA Games.
But it had struggled to make a dent at the continental level, with only two Asian Games fencing medals – Lim Wei Wen’s men’s individual epee bronze in 2014, and a women’s team foil bronze won by Tatiana Wong, Melanie Huang, Amita Berthier and Maxine Wong in 2018 – to show for it.
But after six days of action at the Aichi Sky Expo in Nagoya, Team Singapore’s fencers delivered their best Asiad campaign yet, winning three medals – one silver and two bronzes.
Fencing Singapore president David Chen assessed that his fencers’ historic performance has helped announce Singapore on the Asian stage, stating that “people are starting to talk about us now”.
Chen told The Straits Times after the final day of action on Sept 27, when the men’s epee team and women’s sabre team exited in the quarter-finals, that they had come in “with the expectation to make history”.
Chen, who assumed office in 2024, credited his predecessors, adding that his team had built on foundations established by previous teams, clubs and coaches.
He said “Internally, before we came here, we set really high bars. We were aiming for three medals across the different weapon groups, and I think the fencers themselves, the coaches, really delivered.
“So we’re really, really glad, really thankful for the entire ecosystem, the clubs, the coaches, all coming together to support the fencers as one team.”
“From what we have seen at the recent Asian Fencing Championships, where we’ve been doing fairly well, been medalling, and we knew that (this) is the right moment for us to climb new heights. So we came in with the expectation to make history,” he added.
On Sept 22, Kiria Tikanah won an unprecedented Asiad silver medal for Singapore in the women’s epee. A day later, Wong became Singapore’s first individual foil medallist at the continental meet by winning a bronze.
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