Bad start for Pinoy fencers

Team Philippines absorbed shattering defeats as three of its bets bowed out of contention yesterday in the first half of the 2004 Asia-Oceania Fencing Olympic qualifying tournament, the first of two major fencing events – the second being the Sharp Asian Championship– at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.

Armand Bernal was the first to fall, taking a tough 8-15 decision to Evgeniy Chigrin of Kyrghystan in the round-of-16 of the men’s epee event in this meet organized by the Philippine Amateur Fencing Association (PAFA) headed by Celso Dayrit.

Next to get the door was Joanna Franquelli, who lost to Chow Tsa Ki of Hong Kong, 7-15, in the direct eliminations of the women’s sabre event. A few hours later, Chow went on to the finals along with Japanese Madoka Hisagae to clinch slots in the Athens Olympics set this August.

"I was doing good in the pooling round but was unlucky enough to get paired against a good player," said the 27-year-old Franquelli, a former national cage team mainstay who works as a medical representative.

Harleen Orendain, the last of the RP bets who competed in Day 1, came through with the best effort but blew a 6-5 lead to lose to 2003 Hanoi Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Siritida Choochokhul of Thailand, 11-15, in the quarterfinals of women’s epee.

"Sayang nanggigil kasi ako dahil tinalo na rin niya ako sa quarterfinals sa Vietnam, gusto ko talagang makabawi," said Orenadain, a graduating business administration student at the University of Santo Tomas.

"Hindi bale, baka sa Asian Championship na lang ako babawi sa kanya, dahil sasali din siya (Choochokhul) doon," added the Bolinao, Pangasinan native.

What Bernal, Franquelli and Orendain could not do, Wally Mendoza (men’s sabre), Emerson Segui (men’s foil) and Vina Nuestro (women’s foil) hope to accomplish today as they shoot for Olympic berths in today’s final half of the qualifier.

"This is really a tough field," said Dayrit, president of both the Philippine SEAG Organizing Committee (Philsoc) and the Philippine Olympic Committee who presided over the biggest fencing event ever to be held in the country.

Attention is expected to focus on the 2004 Sharp Asian Championships, which is being participated in by 400 fencers from 23 countries, starting tomorrow at the same venue.

Defending champion China is the team to beat as it boasts of the likes of women’s epee junior champion Tan Li and Asian men’s foil titlist Zhang Lianglan while equally dangerous Kazakhstan is expected to lean on Busan Asian Games men’s epee gold medalist Alexander Axenov and silver medal winner Sergey Shabalin.

Other fencers to watch are two-time SEAG men’s sabre gold medalist Siriroj Rathprasert and foil bet Nontapat Panchan of Thailand, Asian medalists Tza Ki Chow and Chui Ling Yeung of Hong Kong, and Sydney Olympian Joanna Halls of Australia.

Other countries seeing action in this meet bankrolled by Sharp are Korea, Chinese Taipei, Brunei, India, Iran, Kuwait, Macau, Malaysia, New Zealand, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.