First-ever team gold for Singapore at Asian Junior and Cadet Fencing Championships
Singapore’s national women’s fencing team reached another milestone on Wednesday (6 March) when they clinched a first-ever women’s foil junior (Under-20) gold medal at the Asian Junior and Cadet Fencing Championships in Amman, Jordan.
The team of Amita Berthier, Maxine Wong, Tatiana Wong and Denyse Chan were seeded second in the competition, and they defeated top-seeded Japan 42-38 in the final for their first-ever team gold at the championships.
Second gold at the championships
This is the team’s second gold at the competition. Amita, 18, had won the women’s foil individual gold medal on Sunday, beating South Korea’s Park Ji-hee 15-12 in the final.
In last year’s championships in Dubai, Maxine and Denyse were part of the Singapore cadet (U-17) team that lost to Japan 18-45 in the final. The other members were Tan Jia Lin and Rachel Lim.
In Wednesday’s competition, Singapore were given a bye in the round of 16, and beat Kazakhstan 45-16 in the last eight. In the semi-finals, they came from behind to beat South Korea 45-32 to set up the final clash with Japan, who beat Hong Kong 45-27.
The Singapore cadet men’s foil team of Matthew Lim, Jonathan Lim, Joel Chiu and Maximus Tio won a bronze medal on Saturday, after a 26-45 semi-final loss to China. Simon Lee had earlier won a men’s épée individual silver medal last Wednesday (27 February).
Impressive list of achievements
The latest gold by the national women’s foil team adds to their impressive list of achievements. At the Jakarta Asian Games in August last year, the quartet of Amita, Tatiana, Maxine and Melanie Huang clinched a joint bronze with South Korea, the first time Singapore had won a fencing team medal at the Asiad.
Amita, Maxine, Tatiana and Nicole Wong also won the silver at the World Junior and Cadet Fencing Championships in Verona, Italy, last April. The team were seeded 13th then, but beat the higher-seeded Poland, France and Germany before losing 30-45 to the United States in the final.
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