SEA Games: PH’s first medal is a silver in women’s foil fencing

28th SEA Games Singapore 2015 – OCBC Arena Hall 2, Singapore – 3/6/15
Fencing – Philippines v Singapore – Women’s Individual Foil Final – Philippines’s Justine Gail Tinio (L) and Singapore’s Wang Wenying in action
TEAMSINGAPORE SEAGAMES28
Mandatory Credit: Singapore SEA Games Organising Committee / Action Images via Reuters

The Philippines’ first medal in the 28th Southeast Asian Games came in the form of a silver courtesy of individual women’s foil athlete Justine Gail Tinio, who defeated the top-seeded Vietnamese fencer before bowing to her Singaporean rival in the finals.

In the finals on Wednesday evening at the OCBC Arena in Singapore, Tinio fell 15-7 to Singapore’s defensive specialist and left-hander Wang Wenying who capitalized on her strong parries and rapid ripostes to fend off the Filipina’s lunging attacks.

The right-handed Tinio had no trouble dispatching two left-handed opponents, Kyaw May Tinzar from Myanmar and Do Thi Anh from Vietnam, with both attacks and ripostes to their flanks. But Tinio could not penetrate Wang’s sweeping circular parries which was successful in deflecting her blade, and instead had to rely on lapses in the Singaporean’s attack in order to score.

The 19-year-old Tinio, who stands at five-foot-three, also found herself at a height and reach disadvantage against the 34-year-old Wang, who stands at five-foot-ten and was also the gold medal winner in last year’s Commonwealth Fencing Championships.

Other Filipino fencers also fell to their rivals earlier in the day.

In the individual men’s epee event, the Philippines’ Gian Franco Rodriguez lost a closely fought match, 15-13, against Indonesia’s Haerullah Muhammad, while Noelito Jose Jr. lost a lopsided 15-5 match to Singapore’s Lee Mun Hou.

The biggest upset in the fencing competition so far was the loss of Thailand’s top-rated saber fencer and former SEA Games champion Wiradech Kothny to 17-year-old Singaporean Choy Yu Yong. Kothny formerly played for the German national team and was a double bronze medalist for Germany in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

The 28th SEA Games marks the Philippine fencing team’s return to the biennial competition after a four-year hiatus since fencing was not included in the previous edition of the games two years ago in Laos.

Filipino fencers will see action in the men’s individual foil and women’s individual epee, as well as the women’s individual saber competition on Thursday. CC