RP fencers bow out in Day One

Team Philippines struggled in the wake of the foreign bets’ romp in the Sharp Asian Fencing Championships, losing all its matches in the epee events at the start of the event yesterday at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.

Harlene Orendain and Melly Joyce Angeles put up a gallant stand but were simply overpowered by their fancied rivals and bowed right after the round-of-16 of this week-long event sponsored by Sharp and organized by the Philippine Amateur Fencing Association (PAFA) headed by Celso Dayrit.

Orendain, currently the country’s top fencer in epee but who lost in the Asia-Oceania Athens qualifier Monday, engaged Anna Shernova of Kazakhstan in a close, tightly-fought contest before dropping a 13-15 decision.

Angeles, a 24-year-old psychology graduate at University of the Philippines, held her ground against Hong Kong’s Sabrina Lui but just couldn’t sustain her form and absorbed a 11-15 loss.

"I was really exhausted before the game so I just motivated myself to play hard but it wasn’t enough, she was just too good," said Angeles.

Also advancing to the round-of-16 were Armand Bernal in the men’s division and 2003 Hanoi Southeast Asian Games women’s epee silver medallist Lorena Ann San Diego. But the duo suffered the same fate as Orendain and Angeles.

San Diego got booted out by Kim Ju Ha of Korea, 5-12, while Bernal, a 26-year-old Political Science student at Jose Rizal University who sidelines as the coach of the University of Santo Tomas fencing squad, bowed to 2003 Bangkok Asian Championship sixth placer Shunsuke Saka of Japan, 4-15.

"Ginawa ko nang lahat pero malakas talaga ‘yung Hapon," said Bernal.

Earlier, Avelino Victorino Jr. and Almario Vizcayno lost in the men’s side of the event while Roberta Gonzales dropped her bid in the women’s division.

Victorino, fighting with a right arm strain, held Yang Kai-Fan of Chinese Taipei to a 7-all deadlock but dropped six of the last seven points and lost, 8-13, while Vizcayno blew an 8-5 lead and took a close 11-12 decision to Hoi Kio Heng of Macau in the first round of the direct eliminations.

Gonzales, who is returning to the national team after a one-year break, was also eliminated in the first round, losing to Zhang Jianqing of the dreaded China team.

"Maganda ang nilaro ko nung pooling stage kaya akala ako mahina muna makakalaban ko," said Gonzales, 32. "Nagulat nga ako nung siya (Zhang) agad ang nakalaban ko."

The only RP entry who didn’t make the main draw was Wilfredo Vizcayno, a member of the 2003 Hanoi SEAG men’s epee team silver medallist who fell as early as the pooling stage.