Canlas fencers bag two golds in Singapore

Canlas fencers celebrate a successful stint in Singapore. —CONTRIBUTED photo

Jodie Tan and Yuna Canlas dominated their respective women’s foil divisions, highlighting the campaign of the Canlas Fencing (CF) team in the recent 2022 Minime Singapore Fencing Festival at OCBC Arena in Kallang District, Singapore.

Tan, of St. Jude Catholic School, bagged her first international gold medal as she ruled the 12-and-under category with a 10-4 win over Chinese-Australian Zhang June Irina.

Canlas, of Holy Family Parochial School in Pasig, also pocketed her first gold abroad with an 8-2 victory over Zhang Linao of host Singapore in the U-10 division.

“With two gold medals in the tournament, we’re very satisfied with the results we got in the Minime Singapore,” said former national team mentor Amat Canlas, co-founder of CF with Sally Aramburo. “We could have won a few more like in the team, but with five bronze [medals], still an accomplishment for the CF fencers.”

CF earned the bronze medals from Amber Diaz in U-10 women’s foil, Victoria Ebdane in U-12 women’s foil and Sophia Catantan in the U-14 women’s foil. The two other bronzes were from the women’s and men’s foil team.

Also among the international debutants was Willa Liana Galvez, the 11-year-old student of University of the East who placed 11th in U-12 women’s foil out of 29 participants. Galvez nearly clinched a bronze medal after two scintillating victories but lost, 10-4, to a more experienced foe in sixth-ranked Radzuan Nur Mohd of Malaysia in the Final 16.