In hopes of surpassing its performance in the last Southeast Asian Games here, the Philippine Fencing Association has created the blueprint for the national team’s bid in the 31st SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Amat Canlas, the head coach of the national team, said the PFA has approved the selection process through a tournament, which will be conducted in a bubble setup for the PFA National Open Fencing Championships on July 3 to 11 at the Superdome in Ormoc City.
PFA president Richard Gomez, the mayor of Ormoc City, has agreed to host the event.
“Because of the COVID-19 situation, we’ll continue to abide and practice all the health protocols. Participants need to have negative PCR test results 72 hours before they enter the bubble, plus the Ormoc City QR code,” said Canlas in a message Friday to Manila Bulletin.
“The tournament is open to all, not just for the national team members. Right now we do have members of the national team, and even them, they have to go through the same process because this is for the SEA Games in Vietnam.”
The said event is expected to attract fencers from UAAP schools and different fencing clubs in the country, as well as Filipino fencers based in other countries like the US.
During the SEA Games here in 2019, the national team pocketed two gold medals courtesy of Jylyn Nicanor in the women’s individual saber, and the women’s epee team of Hanniel Abella, Mickyle Bustos, Anna Estimada and Harlene Raguin.
The national team also had two silvers and seven bronze medals during the biennial meet.
The tournament for the selection process will start July 3 and 4 for the first leg of individual men’s and women’s foil, epee and saber. The second leg is on July 7 and 8, while the third leg is on July 10 and 11.
On the 11th, there will also be a selection process for the men’s and women’s team epee.
Filipino fencers are doing well abroad led by Sam Catantan, who had an impressive rookie season at Penn State University as the first homegrown Filipino to play for a Division 1 school in the US NCAA.
The 19-year-old Catantan, the reigning Under-23 Asian Championship gold medalist, finished tied for third with Singapore’s Amita Berthier, her SEA Games rival who played for Notre Dame.
Catantan also had a personal best finish of 20th overall in the women's foil juniors division in the 2021 Junior-Cadet World Fencing Championships last Wednesday in Cairo, Egypt.
In the same tournament, Fil-Am Lance Tan of Sacred Heart University had a personal best of 23rd place finish in men’s foil juniors, while Daena Talavera, 16, of Clayton High School in Missouri had a historic seventh place finish overall in the women’s cadet category.
This month, six Filipino fencers will join the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) for the Tokyo Olympics in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.