Paris Olympics: In fencing, one PH bet, two athletes to cheer for

SCHEDULE: Team Philippines at Paris Olympics 2024 (PH TIME)

Fencing will be quite the sport to monitor for Team Philippines in the Paris Olympics 2024, if only because it had been in the headlines for quite some time.

Team Philippines will field only one athlete in former UAAP and US NCAA standout Samantha Catantan, but there will be two homegrown Filipinos competing in the Olympiad, giving the country two athletes to cheer for.

Team Philippines in Paris Olympics 2024: Meet the athletes

WHEN AND WHERE ARE THE EVENTS?

The women’s foil event, where Samantha Catantan and Maxine Esteban will compete, will be held on July 28 at Grand Palais.

HOW WILL THE EVENT GO?

FILE–Team Philippines’ Samantha Catantan reacts after beating Singapore’s Maxine Jie Xin Wong in the women’s epee individual fencing final in the Hanoi SEA Games. (Photo by TANG CHHIN SOTHY / AFP)

Samantha Catantan needed to go through a wild card tournament to book a ticket to the Paris Olympics 2024. The tournament was held for Asian countries with no Olympic qualifiers yet. As a wild card, she will compete with four other qualifiers and the two survivors of that knockout match will advance to the Olympics’ round-of-32.

Paris Olympics 2024: Samantha Catantan faces tall odds, vows to give best

Maxine Esteban, on the other hand, qualified directly into the main bracket through the African championships and is awaiting the final seeding to determine her first-round opponent.

The round-of-32 features reverse-order matchups, with the No. 1 seed battling the No. 32 seed and so on.

WILL ESTEBAN AND CATANTAN CROSS PATHS?

While anything is possible, the two clashing in Paris is unlikely given the tournament format.

BASICS OF THE SPORT

Two competitors battle on a piste, a playing area 14 meters long and 1.5-m wide, and try to score by striking their opponent in valid target areas of the body.

The rules differ in the weapons used. In this case, there are foil, épée and sabre. Catantan and Esteban will be in the foil event.In épée and foil, fencers score when they successfully spike their opponent with the point of their weapon.

In foil, the target area is only in the torso, shoulders and neck.

Both fencers will be in a race to 15 points or whoever can score more after three three-minute rounds.

HOW MANY MEDALS ARE AT STAKE IN PARIS?

Twelve gold medals are up for grabs in the sport of fencing, six each for the men’s and women’s divisions.

There will also be individual and team events; six golds are also divided in each category.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Lee Kiefer from the United States will be partaking in the women’s foil events. She took home the gold medal in the Tokyo.

No Inna Deriglazova this time. The Russian fencer, who was Kiefer’s Finals rival in Tokyo, won’t be in the Paris Olympics 2024.