National Team stalwarts set early pace in PFA Open tournament

c/o Philippine Fencing Association

The quest to determine the best Filipino fencers in the country took place last Valentine's weekend at the Amoranto Stadium in Quezon City, as the Philippine Fencing Association held the first leg of its ranking tournaments.

As expected, members of the national team pool led the way in the competition, managing to earn their way to most of the final spots for each division.

Saturday saw our SEA Games individual medalists step up to the plate, with silver medalist Noelito Jose Jr claim the Men's Epee title against Samuel German, who is part of the national pool for Modern Pentathlon, 15-13.

Bronze Medalist Janna Catantan claimed the Women's Foil crown by defeating her younger sister Sophia, 15-9, while Eunice Villanueva topped fellow bronze medalist CJ Concepcion, 15-12.

Meanwhile on Sunday, bronze medalist Nathaniel Perez topped surprise standout Michael Nicanor, 15-12, for the men's foil title. Nicanor has been active more as a coach/mentor for Republic Fencing, but managed to dispatch national team pool members Marcus Manuel and Shawn Nicollei Felipe respectively in the quarterfinals and semifinals to set up his match against Perez.

Jylyn Nicanor topped her fellow national team member Queenie Dalmacio for the Women's Sabre crown.

Complementing the performance of German for Modern Pentathlon, is Princess Honey Arpilon. The former SEA Games medalist pulled off upsets against fellow Ormoc natives and UAAP individual champions Alexa Larrazabal in the semifinal and Juliana Gomez in the final to claim the Women's Epee title with 15-11 scorelines.

Other noteworthy performances during the competition include La Salle standouts Edan Ensamtan and Kurt Maruquez, Aubrey Fernandez of UST, Canada-based Nadelle Turiano, and Victoria Ebdane, both of whom represent Canlas Fencing.

In addition to the action on the piste, the PFA also honored last year's top fencers in all three levels (MiniMe, Cadet and Junior, Open).

The NSA will hold its second leg on April 25-26 at Rizal Memorial Coliseum as the Open portion of the Dr. Celso L. Dayrit Memorial Fencing Championships.