Canlas Fencing hauls 13 gold medals in Bladesmith meet

MANILA, Philippines – Canlas Fencing (CF) displayed its might as it captured a total of 13 of the 26 gold medals at stake in the Bladesmith Rookie Fencing Invitational last Sunday, June 15, at the British School Manila in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City.

The girls’ foil swept all categories as University of the East high school stalwart Aubrey Pauline Fernandez led the CF dominance with her victory in U17, and saw them win in four other divisions of girl's foil.

Also winning gold for the CF foilists are Jodie Tan in U14, Willa Galvez in U12, Christine Morales in U10 and Yuri Canlas in U8. In boys’ foil, Elijah Timbol ruled the U10 while James Lim won in U17.

The 14-year-old Fernandez, an incoming Grade 10 at the Recto-based school, defeated Kaijinsei dela Serna of CF 15-5 in the finals. Dela Serna won 15-7 against Victoria Malvar of CF, who advanced to the semifinals when Sophia Catantan — the reigning UAAP high school champion from UE — withdrew due to injury.

Fernandez edged Venice Villenas of Hampton Court Fencing Club 15-3 in the other semifinal pairing. Aside from the 13 gold medals, CF also took a total of 14 silver and 20 bronze medals.

As for Tan, she cruised to an easy 15-2 win against Martina Baccay of De La Salle Zobel in the gold medal round. Malvar and Ina Pascual of Republic Fencing settled with the bronze medals.

Galvez, on the other hand, claimed her second gold in U12 in two months as she dispatched Precious Sison of Calle de Armas 10-4. Galvez, 11, a Grade 7 student at UE, came through with a nail-biting 10-9 win over Yuna Canlas of CF in the semis while Sison defeated Amber Diaz of CF 10-4.

Meantime, Yuri Canlas defeated fellow CF fencer Morgan Uy 8-2 in the finals of U8, but the former failed to win a second gold when she lost to Morales 8-2 in the U10 division of this one-day event organized by Bladesmith Fencing under BSM coach Arvin Baccay.

CF also got gold medals in other weapons, including Ariana Licaros in U10, Nicol Canlas in U12 and Adrianne Lising in U17 of girl’s sabre; Khiane Felipe in U17 boy’s sabre; Gael Villaluna in U12 boy’s epee; and Nina Canlas in U14 girl’s epee.

“This proves that our program at CF is on the right track. It’s the same goal for us, and that is to continue producing top fencers in the country – from the grassroots level, to cadet and junior, and hopefully the national team,” said former national team coach Amat Canlas, co-founder of CF with Sally Aramburo.