Guinto impressive in Asian cadet fencing

Filipino foil fencer Clyd Lorenzo guinto made a strong showing in the recent asian Cadet Fencing Championships with a rare “all wins” campaign in pool play on his way to a Top 20 finish in Manama, Bahrain.

guinto, who will turn 16 in July, put together a clean slate of 5-0 in the opening round at Pool no. 9 made up of six fencers in his first-ever campaign in the continental meet for 17-and-under fencers.

guinto defeated ali albusaidi of oman 5-3, then pulled off a thrilling 5-4 victory against Dhruv Tyagi of india, followed by a lopsided 5-0 decision over Uzbekistan’s Radmir Vorojeykin, and identical 5-3 wins in his last two bouts against abdulaziz Kandari of Kuwait and trevor Wu of Chinese taipei.

a grade 10 student at Paref southridge, guinto advanced to the Direct Elimination round as the no. 7 ranked fencer and dispatched no. 58 albusaidi with a 15-12 win in the Round of 64. Faris Alblooshi of the United arab Emirates won the gold medal in men’s foil, Rui hayashikawa of Japan took the silver medal, while south Korea’s Beomjun and China’s gao tian settled for the bronze medals.

Although he suffered a 15-5 loss to Japan’s Shun shiraogawa in the Round of 32, guinto managed to finish at No. 17 among 80 fencers in the four-day tournament organized by the international Fencing Federation.

Ramil Endriano, the coach of guinto, said that while the “all wins” feat was impressive, it was the drive and passion of the fencer that really made its mark as far as he is concerned.

“i felt ecstatic (with the result). it was very rewarding to win all bouts in the pools. it’s something i didn’t expect yet i knew i worked hard to be there and achieve such. Especially in a big competition like the asian Championships,” added guinto, who had national team fencer Michael nicanor as his coach in Bahrain.

Richard Salario and Maricar Camacho ruled the men’s and women’s divisions of the 42nd celebration of the Philippine Airlines Manila International Marathon recently, with respective clockings of two hours 25 minutes and 24 seconds and 3:09:18. Photo shows PAL vice president for sa sales and marketing Bud Brittanico (left) and race organizer Dino Jose raising the hands of the winners, who will represent the country in the Taiwan International Marathon in November.

Clyd Guinto, left, holds his Certificate of Award from the Philippine Fencing Association (PFA) with his coach Ramil Endriano at the Fencing Hall of the PhilSports Complex in Pasig City.