Andrew chalks up a bronze at international meet
Young fencer shows he has what it takes at championships
REIGNING Malaysia Games boys’ foil champion Andrew Mok was the toast of the Malaysian camp at the Commonwealth Junior Fencing Championships at Jersey in the Channel Islands recently.
In his debut outing at the Under-20 meet, the 16-year-old exponent emerged as the top Malaysian performer, picking up a bronze medal in the boys’ foil event.
Although the southpaw exponent dropped a bout when he went down 3-5 against New Zealand’s Daniel Kahu in the group stages to finish 11th in the round of 64 elimination stage, the Kuala-lumpur-based Touche Fencing Club trainee created an upset at the bottom half of the draw for a place in the last four.
Andrew chalked up a hard-earned 15-14 victory over the third-ranked Thomas Corlett from Isle of Man in the quarter-finals.
In the closing stages of the keenly contested encounter, Andrew built up a healthy 13-8 lead over Corlett before allowing his opponent to claw back into contention and levelled the score at 13-13 and 14-14.
“I shot ahead because he (Corlett) was not familiar with my strokes. He was a skilful fencer. He was also very fast in mounting the pressure with his swift attacks and counterattacks. I had difficulty adapting to his explosive movements and gave him the chance to pounce at me. He caught me off guard on several occasions to force it down to the wire. I was very anxious in the tight finish but I kept my composure to score the crucial final point. I knew that I had to beat him to it initiating the attack and I am glad that my strategy paid dividends,” Andrew said.
However, Andrew’s gallant run ended when he lost 6-15 to second seed George Hendrie of England in the semi-finals.
“The refreshing change of environment has provided the opportunity for me to gain valuable experience.
“It was a new learning curve taking on opponents with better physique and different combat approaches in a high-level junior competition. I have also added a few more new tricks up my sleeves,” said Andrew.
It was unfortunate for two other Malaysian entries — Lim Zhou Zhi and Syed Adil Emir Putra — in the boys’ foil, having to face each other to progress to the round of 32.
Although Syed Adil came through with a comfortable 15-5 win, it was the end of the road for him after losing 11-15 to Andrew for a spot in the
Another Malaysia’s foilist Calvin Ong was eliminated in the opening round of the boys’ elimination contest.
Andrew’s coach and father C.W. Mok was delighted that the youngster accomplished his aim of advancing beyond his initial quarter-finals target at the Commonwealth meet. As a build-up to the Commonwealth meet, Andrew, along with two other teammates —Imran Seth and Bryan Mok — featured at the twoday Challenge CEP Marathon Foil in Paris.
Andrew was ranked 76th in the boys’ Cadet (Under-17) field that drew a total of 230 entries in the warm-up competition.
In the boys’ Minime (Under-14) with a total of 328 youngsters in the fray, Bryan and Imran finished in 67th and 181st position respectively.
“It was a coincidence that we found out about the competition in Paris hosted about a week before the Commonwealth meet. It fitted well into our plans for Andrew as a prelude for the Commonwealth. After the competition in Paris, Andrew also went through a brief four sessions training stint with clubs in Rennes and Paris.
“The clubs were very helpful in assisting him to gear up. The solid preparation has allowed him to make the necessary adjustments. Besides acclimatising to the unusual cold weather, it was an eye-opener for him to handle the European junior fencers with better reach advantage. He was very well prepared with the extra groundwork. The exposure definitely boosted his confidence,” Mok said.
Andrew, who will be sitting for his O-level examination at the end of the year, is taking part in the national junior above 16 years (March 2-5) and the Singapore Cadet World Cup (mid-march) followed by the national junior and cadet championships in mid-may.
For his upcoming appearance at the Singapore Cadet World Cup, Andrew is aiming to go beyond the quarter-finals in the Under17 age-group event.
Last year, he went down 13-15 to the top ranked Cheung Ka Long of Hong Kong Fencing School (HKFS) in the last 16.
“Going into the competition last year, I have just recovered from illness and failed to reach my semi-finals target. I am hopeful of doing better in Singapore this time,” said Andrew.