NAGOYA \u2013 In the last decade, Singapore has firmly established itself as a fencing powerhouse in the region with supremacy at the SEA Games.<\/p>\n
But it had struggled to make a dent at the continental level, with only two Asian Games fencing medals \u2013 Lim Wei Wen\u2019s men\u2019s individual epee bronze in 2014, and a women\u2019s team foil bronze won by Tatiana Wong, Melanie Huang, Amita Berthier and Maxine Wong in 2018 \u2013 to show for it.<\/p>\n
But after six days of action at the Aichi Sky Expo in Nagoya, Team Singapore\u2019s fencers delivered their best Asiad campaign yet, winning three medals \u2013 one silver and two bronzes.<\/p>\n
Fencing Singapore president David Chen assessed that his fencers\u2019 historic performance has helped announce Singapore on the Asian stage, stating that \u201cpeople are starting to talk about us now\u201d.<\/p>\n
Chen told The Straits Times after the final day of action on Sept 27, when the men\u2019s epee team and women\u2019s sabre team exited in the quarter-finals, that they had come in \u201cwith the expectation to make history\u201d.<\/p>\n
Chen, who assumed office in 2024<\/span><\/a>, credited his predecessors, adding that his team had built on foundations established by previous teams, clubs and coaches.<\/p>\n He said \u201cInternally, 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.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we\u2019re really, really glad, really thankful for the entire ecosystem, the clubs, the coaches, all coming together to support the fencers as one team.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFrom what we have seen at the recent Asian Fencing Championships, where we\u2019ve 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,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n On Sept 22, Kiria Tikanah won an unprecedented Asiad silver medal for Singapore in the women\u2019s epee<\/span><\/a>. A day later, Wong became Singapore\u2019s first individual foil medallist at the continental meet by winning a bronze<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n Kiria Tikanah with her women\u2019s epee silver medal at the 2026 Asian Games on Sept 22.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n On Sept 25, Elle Koh, Esther Tan, Filzah Hidayah and Kiria completed the historic medal haul<\/span><\/a> with a bronze, winning Singapore\u2019s first Games team medal in epee.<\/p>\n Having exited at the quarter-final stage in the previous three editions, the team achieved a breakthrough with a dramatic 42-41 comeback victory over Uzbekistan, overturning an 11-point deficit to reach the semi-finals.<\/p>\n The epee team\u2019s standout performance has prompted national epee coach Henry Koh to set his sights on a milestone of qualifying a Singapore team for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cWe\u2019re proving a point here (that) we can take it to the best teams in the region, and I hope within the next two years, our hard work and good fortune will continue so that we can actually qualify as a team for the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n While celebrating this historic performance, Chen \u2013 who previously set a target of a 12-gold clean sweep at the 2029 SEA Games on home soil<\/span><\/a> \u2013 also said there is still room for improvement.<\/p>\n Rating the campaign an eight out of 10, he highlighted the need to enhance athlete support, extend athletes\u2019 professional pathways and helping them build better mental fortitude.<\/p>\n Berthier, who endured a tough Asiad campaign and spoke up about her struggles after her competition ended<\/span><\/a>, also received Chen\u2019s support.<\/p>\n \u201cWe still have a lot of faith in Amita because she showed Singapore fencing the way, getting to the Olympics,\u201d said Chen.<\/p>\n Amita Berthier getting ready to face Polina Volobueva of Uzbekistan in the table of 16 of the women’s foil on Sept 23.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n \u201cAnd Amita has a lot to offer. We are looking at her to be in a leadership role beyond just being a leader on the piste, but also leading the younger athletes, showing them the way. She openly talked about her struggle. That\u2019s great as well because by being vulnerable, by talking about it, by letting more people know about it, then there\u2019s a chance to move on from that, and our hearts are with her.\u201d<\/p>\n Another gap he hopes to address is to ensure that the next Asiad will feature athletes in all weapons across both genders. Singapore did not have a representative in both the sabre men\u2019s team and individual.<\/p>\n Sertay Yerlik of Kazakhstan (left) and Singapore\u2019s Si To Jian Tong in action during the men\u2019s epee team quarter-finals on Sept 27.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: MARK CHEONG<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Chen noted the youth of their contingent, which had several Asiad debutants, saying: \u201cIt was really a disappointment that we didn\u2019t manage to send a (men\u2019s sabre) team this time round.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd after I saw the individual event and team\u2019s event, I have to say we really need to do a lot more work for men\u2019s sabre because the countries, even the South-east Asian countries, are up and coming and really, really strong.<\/p>\n \u201cSo we have a little bit more time to think about how we can improve as a whole, look into our pipeline, not just the fencers but also look into the coaching pipeline as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n NAGOYA \u2013 In the last decade, Singapore has firmly established itself as a fencing powerhouse in the region with supremacy at the SEA Games. But…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/88415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/picture><\/div>
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