Contributed by Ryan Quek

Seoul, Wednesday, July 13, 2011 — Singapore’s national men’s epee and women’s sabre team fencers fought hard but came up short against tough opposition on the final day of the Asian Fencing Championships.

The men’s epee team lost two matches to Iran and Thailand but came back to defeat Chinese Taipei and Malaysia to finish in 11th placing overall.

Last year’s Commonwealth Silver medallist Lim Weiwen said: “The team did not do too badly today and if only we were able to string together a few good bouts, the outcome against Thailand would have been very different.”

The team lost to Thailand 45-43 in an exciting finish before they faced Malaysia

During the 11th-12th placing match, Singapore weathered a late comeback attempt by the Malaysians to eventually prevail, clinching the tie 44-39.

David Chan, Team Manager of the Singapore contingent, said: “The epee team showed tremendous determination even when they were evidently tired out from the earlier bouts. I was pleased to see their strong fighting spirit and I’m sure this performance will spur them to train even harder before SEA Games later this year.”

In the women’s sabre team event, Singapore struggled to gain an early foothold and had to play catch-up in all their matches. Despite their best efforts, the team lost to Kazakhstan 31-45 and also lost narrowly to Chinese Taipei and Indonesia to finish 7th place overall.

Singapore’s Nona Lim, who finished in a very respectable 15th place during the individual event, was disappointed but was pleased that the two new members to the team gained invaluable lessons against tough opponents.

She said: “Though we were not able to win today, we were able to assess where our weaknesses are and where we stand as a team against our opponents. There is a lot of work to be done but we are confident we can achieve our goals.”

In previous day’s matches, the men’s foil team defeated South East Asian rivals Malaysia and Indonesia with ease but were unable to overcome their superior opponents from South Korea. The team eventually finished their Asian Championships campaign ranked 7th overall.

In the women’s epee team event, Singapore posted one victory and three losses to exit the competition ranked in 14th place.

Fencing Singapore sent a total of 22 athletes to this year’s annual competition which is hosting a total of close to 300 athletes from 8th July to 13th July.


More information about the sport can be found at http://fencingsingapore.org.sg