New faces lead fencers’ charge
FENCING will offer six gold medals at the Sea Games, but Malaysia are not in a position to win any.
There men’s and three women’s foil Individual, epee individual and sabre individual events will be held at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (MiTEC) in Kuala Lumpur.
The sport almost did not make it to the Games list, but a last minute change saw fencing included together with judo, triathlon and muay thai.
“The elite fencers are overseas right now and will only return early August. And since the MiTEC venue is still not ready, the other fencers are training at the clubs,” said fencing manager Moira Tan Siew See.
Malaysia will bank on newbies Syed Adam Emir and Ahmad Syukran after the retirement of Olympic sabre fencer Yu Peng Kean for the Kuala Lumpur Sea Games on Aug 1930.
Peng Kean, 26, who qualified for the 2012 London Olympics on merit, has consistently delivered medals at the Sea Games.
He led the team to a gold in Jakarta 2011 and also won two individual bronze medals in 2011 and Singapore 2015. But he had to call it quits in February due to injuries.
Syed Adam and Syukran are in Guangzhou for a month-long training stint, while the trio of Joshua Koh I-Jie (epee) and women foil specialists Natasha Ezzra and Tyanne Fong are also overseas in South Korea.
At the last Game in Singapore, 12 gold medals were on offer as team events were also held, and Vietnam snatched eight gold, Singapore three and Thailand one.
Malaysia could only win two bronze medals – as the losing semifinalists are both accorded the colour. Jugjet Singh