RP fencers claim 11 of 12 golds

Only one of 12 gold medals staked in the sixth Southeast Asian Fencing Championships that wrapped up Saturday in Kuala Lumpur slipped the hands of Filipino fencers but the overall crown the country retained has stirred a campaign that is starting to worry RP officials.

At least two countries have expressed interest in hiring the Philippines’ topnotch coaches with the intent of toppling the Filipinos not only from their perch in the sport’s regional championships but also in the Southeast Asian Games, particularly next year in Vietnam.

Celso Dayrit, president of the Philippine Olympic Committee and head of the Philippine Amateur Fencing Association, revealed Brunei, a newcomer in the sport, and Malaysia have discreetly tried to pirate Filipino foil coach Venerando Garcia and the team’s two Chinese coaches – Shen Changjie for saber and Tong Wei for epee.

Garcia is a Class A fencing coach, having worked with the German fencing center for nine years, while the Chinese were partly responsible for their country’s success in the Olympics.

"While an athlete’s good performance may be due to many other reasons such as an effective training program, sufficient exposure, good leadership, and extensive support, the contribution of top level coaching is essential for a very technical sport like fencing," said Dayrit, who joined Team Philippines’ successful campaign in the tournament Malaysia hosted at the Negara Stadium in Kuala Lumpur.

"We just hope that we are able to keep our coaching staff intact despite the attractive offers dangled by our neighbors," said Dayrit.

The Philippines wound up with an unprecedented 11 gold, five silver and four bronze medal performance in the six-nation tournament.

The men’s epee team of Avelino Victoriano, Armand Bernal and brothers Wilfredo and Al Viscayno bagged the gold Friday, beating the Indonesian powerhouse team of SEA Games champion Perdian Triage, Handrey Lensum, Budi Darmanto and Eddy Suwarto, 45-38.

Also on Friday, Lorella Bauzon, Avril Geroche and Lorraine settled for the silver medal in women’s epee, losing 28-34 after the 27-minute regulation time elapsed to Indonesia’s Sri Aynti, Paulani Ratu and Rina Sukmawati.

The Philippines was unrelenting, though, on the final day of competitions Saturday and swept the last two team gold medals in men and women saber.

In the 2000 edition, the Philippines emerged overall champion by winning 70 percent of the gold medals staked.