By Ng PL
Maxine Wong, 12, won the U-12 foil gold at the Singapore Minime Fencing Championships. (Photo 1 © Ayushman Basu/Red Sports)
Jurong East Sports Hall, Sunday, June 16, 2013 – Maxine Wong Jie Xin, 12, of Singapore, won the Under-12 foil gold when she beat American Maia Mei Wentraub, 10, 7–2 in the final at the 2013 Singapore Minime Fencing Championships.
She emerged the winner from a field of 23 fencers. Maxine won all her five bouts in the preliminary round, restricting her opponents to no more than one point while she managed to hit the maximum of four points in each bout.
Her toughest encounter was her semi-final bout against Rachel Mary Lim, but she overcame her nerves to eventually win 3–2.
Maxine, who was part of the YMCA Fencing team coached by Viatcheslav Bobok, also won a gold medal back in March at a tournament in Germany. Maxine’s older sister also fences with YMCA Fencing.
The Raffles Girls’ Primary School student started fencing when she was 7 years old.
“Fencing is fun. It is a sport that needs brain power,” said Maxine.
She started taking it more seriously in recent years and now trains three times a week for two to three hours each time. She also loves the sport of basketball.
U12 Girls’ Foil Results
Gold – Maxine Wong Jie Xin (YMCA Fencing)
Silver – Maia Mei Weintraub (Fencing Academy of Philadelphia)
Bronze – Tan Jia Lin (Z Fencing)
Bronze – Lim Rachel Mary (Z Fencing)
More photos next page
Hello! Fencing is really fun!!
The American opponent was a 10 year old. I was impressed with her fencing against the more experienced 12 year old eventual gold medallist. The newspaper should have mentioned the age of the American opponent since they mentioned the age of Maxine Wong.
Thanks for telling us her age, Elizabeth. We updated the story.