Fencing: Liane Wong, Frederick Teo and Clive Leu win golds in inaugural championships

Contributed by Ryan Quek

Clementi Sports Hall, Monday, April 2011 — National fencer and 2010 Youth Olympic Games representative Liane Wong stormed through the draw to secure gold for Catholic Junior College in the A Division Women’s Foil category.

A year one student, Liane was in irrepressible form from the preliminary rounds and qualified as top seed. She then cruised through the later rounds to meet National teammate Lynn Yeo in the final.

After a cagey start, Liane managed to find her form and emerged victorious with a 15-11 scoreline.

Liane said:”I’m really glad to have secured gold because it is never easy to beat Lynn because we know each other so well.”

Cheered on by her vocal schoolmates, Rania Rahadja from Hwa Chong Institution secured the bronze medal with a nail biting 15-13 win over Jephine Wong from CJC.

In the Men’s Epee competition, Lim Wei Hao, also a representative in the YOG for Singapore, was stunned in the final by Frederick Teo of Anglo-Chinese Junior College.

Frederick showed superb composure to beat Graeme Saw in the semi-finals by a sudden-death point, and displayed masterful fencing in the final against Wei Hao to snatch golf with a 15-12 scoreline.

Weihao, who was disappointed with the loss, said: ”All credit to Frederick as he fenced incredibly well and I was not able to take my chances when it came.”

The second-year student, who will be taking his A levels this year, added: “It was unfortunate I couldn’t secure the gold in my last year of fencing for my junior college but i believe this result will give me extra motivation to work harder to achieve my fencing goals in future.”

In the final event of the day, Clive Leu, the winner of the national trials last Saturday, powered through the Sabre final against Douglas Chee of Raffles Institution, winning 15-8.

Clive, a first year student from Meridien Junior College, said: ”This win will be a big boost to my confidence and I hope I can build on this win to achieve even better results for the rest of the year.”

This year’s National Inter School Fencing Championships were officially recognised as an official Co-Curricular Activity (CCA) by the Co-Curricular Activities Branch (CCAB) for the first time. Fencing is the newest addition to the list of 29 sports that is officially recognised in the National School Games calendar.

The championships are taking place at the Clementi Sports Hall from April 11th to 15th, 2011. This is the sixth year Fencing Singapore has organised an inter-school fencing event.