More than 50 Filipino fencers will be seeing action first Hefeng National Junior Championships, a two-day event that starts May 27, at New Taipei Municipal Linkou Senior High School in New Taipei City, Taiwan.
Coming from various clubs and schools, including the Canlas Fencing Academy and Republic Fencing, the Filipinos will see action in the foil, épée and sabre events in several divisions ranging from seven to 17 years old.
Coming off an impressive campaign in the third leg of the National Ranking event, Opao Catantan, younger sister of recent Cambodia Southeast Asian Games campaigners Sam and Ysah, will be leading the charge for the Philippines.
The 13-year-old Opao, a Grade 8 student at University of the East, will see action in both the Under-15 and Under-17 divisions.
Among the notables seeing action are foil fencers Victoria Ebdane, sisters Jodie and Jazleen Tan, Yuna and Yuri Canlas, Hagia del Castillo, Jaide Uy, Jonie Ching, Willa Galvez and RF’s Ina Pascual.
Yuri Canlas is coming off a double gold medal finish in U8 and U10 recently in the Admirals Fencing Invitational in Alabang.