Denying the men the satisfaction of being the only ones to show their prowess during the first day, the women fencers of the six universities (DLSU, UP, UE, ADMU, FEU, and UST) also took to the piste to show what they’re capable of last December 4 at the College of Human Kinetics Gym in UP Diliman.
Staying on top: individual foil
Competing in the afternoon, the women’s foil took off without a hitch as both UE and UST displayed a show of force that truly intimidated the rest. Cutting down the fencers from ADMU, UP, FEU, and DLSU during the round robin period of the tournament, the only difficult matches for the two schools came when their representatives had to face off against one another.
The same could be said for the quarterfinals as compared to the matches of the men- which held heartbreaks and truly surprising outcomes- the women’s foil tournament played out as expected with UE creating an early dominating presence as they quickly ate away the hard work of DLSU’s May Montenegro who was defeated by Justine Tinio, 15-3, and ADMU’s Andrea Ignacio, 15-10, through the hands of Wilhelmina Lozada. Not wanting to be outdone, the UST fencers also proved their strength as they breezed through their quarterfinals assignments, defeating FEU’s April Ventura, 15-9, at the hands of Dyren Penaflor while comrade Anchinette Macaraig defeated Ventura’s teammate Darlene Drio, 15-10.
UST is the only university whose fencers claimed an undefeated record during the round robin, however, luck seemed to have run out during the semis as both of their fencers eventually fell against UE’s Tinio and Lozada who were both quick to re-establish their dominance as they breezed through them during the semifinals.
The gold medal ultimately went to UE’s Tinio who, regardless of suffering from cramps, still defeated her teammate Lozada, 15-6, to force her to take home the silver. While succumbing to the relentless pressure of the revitalized UE fencers, the UST pair still took home a bronze medal each.
