Will Singapore see five SEA Games gold medals from fencing?

Singapore’s fencers are setting their sights on five gold medals in the upcoming SEA Games in Jakarta.

While other National Sports Associations (NSAs) continue to remain mum on their medal targets, Singapore’s fencers are targeting two gold medals in individual and team events for women’s foil, an individual gold for women’s sabre, a team gold for men’s foil and a gold medal from either the men’s or women’s epee fencers.

Team manager Ryan Quek was surprised that the other NSAs were reluctant to pitch their medal target higher.

“Let’s put the target out there and see if the fencers can meet it,” he told Yahoo! Singapore.

And certainly, the 20 Jakarta-bound fencers are working their hardest, with the Singapore women’s epee team in particular going all out to do their best.

With two out of its four players making their SEA Games debut, the female women’s epee team seems to be among the greenest — with the exception of top women’s epee fencer Ann Melbye, who won one of Singapore’s seven gold medals from the Southeast Asian Federation Fencing Championships in Brunei last year.

After a negative experience at the 2007 SEA Games, the last one where fencing was offered as a sport, the spunky 23-year-old was upfront about the mistakes she made, calling the Games “the worst experience of (her) life”.

“I wasn’t really ready, so I didn’t know what SEA Games-level competition would be like,” she said, while sharing about her learning experience.

Melbye, alongside her younger teammates, has since competed in regional and international fencing championships, and is now hoping to return stronger than ever.

“We (the ASEAN fencers) fence with each other at several championships and open events, so I see them improve a lot, and hopefully they see that I have improved a lot as well,” she said.

When asked if she was ready for an aggressive comeback, she responded, “Physically ready—yes. Mentally—maybe? I really don’t know. But I hope so! I feel ready… but you never know.”

Following Melbye’s success at regional championships, epee team coach Zhao Zhizhong holds high hopes for her at the upcoming competition.

“We did well at last year’s Southeast Asian championships, but other countries were also good, so we will try our best,” he said, although admitting that an individual medal for Melbye is more easily attainable than a team one.

“I hope they (the Singaporean fencers) will gain a sense of pride and responsibility in representing their country,” he added.

Joining Melbye to compete at the Games for the first time are university students 22-year-old Victoria Lim and 20-year-old Nicolette Soh, alongside Magdalene Huang, 28, who competed in the 2007 SEA Games with Melbye.

Speaking to Yahoo! Singapore, Lim and Soh were excited for the opportunity to fence at the SEA Games, but are also nervous with the expectations.

“If you go there, you want to do well,” said Lim. “All the seniors who have been there before say it’s a very very different experience.”

“There is a lot of pressure, both on myself and from my coaches and my teammates to do well,” added Soh, who has taken her first university semester off to concentrate on SEA Games preparation.

“I really want to do Singapore proud at the SEA Games… I’m definitely hoping to help the team bring back a medal. I guess that’s our aim—at least a medal, nothing less,” she said.

Both Lim and Soh started out as foilists, but later converted to the epee event. Together with Huang and Melbye, the girls spent eight days in an intensive training camp in Hong Kong and returned home last Sunday.

They will be training here for another three days before heading to Jakarta on Thursday. Melbye and Huang will compete in the preliminaries for epee singles next Monday.

Catch all the action from the SEA Games from November 11 - 22 in Jakarta and Palembang on Yahoo! Singapore.