Samantha Kyle Catantan claimed the gold medal in the women’s individual foil of the Asian Under 23 Fencing Championships in Bangkok, Thailand yesterday.
The 17-year-old Catantan dominated the event while preparing for the 30th Southeast Asian Games to be held in the Philippines.
Taking on the region’s best, the world no. 16 ranked Catantan first won over Korean Choi Minseo via priority point, 15-14, and after coming back from 12-14 down in the last stretch of their semifinal match.
Then, she fought off hand cramps in the gold medal match to repulse another Korean Choi Yu Min, 15-9.
Catantan, who is seeded second among the 39 entries, earlier won over Natnicha Woravijit, 15- 4, in the first round.
Then, she outplayed Chinese Taipeh’s Chin Man Yang with a come-from-behind 15-14 win in the quarterfinals.
She faced Malaysia’s Phillipa Ong Jiyi for a 14-4 triumph in the quarterfinals.
This gave Catantan her second Asian gold medal.
Last year, Catantan teamed up with Maxine Esteban, Justine Tinio and Wilhelmina Lozada to claim the women’s team foil gold medal when it was held in Pasig.
Later, Catantan and Nathaniel Perez settled for the bronze medals in the individual foil.
National coach Roland Canlas, in a statement, expressed his confidence that Catantan can make it to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics with her current world ranking.
Meanwhile, the Southeast Asia Games venues for athletics and swimming are now complete and ready for use.
International representatives for athletics and swimming in the coming 30th South East Asian Games (SEA Games) inspected the world-class Athletics Stadium and Aquatics Center built in New Clark City.
In a meeting with officials of the Bases Conversion Development Authority, Ibrahim Fadil Naddeh, who is international representative for swimming and secretary of the Swimming Technical Committee of Asian Amateur Swimming Federation (AASF), gave his thumbs up to the pool area.
Naddeh praised the quick construction of the sports facilities in just 18 months.
“This took only one year and six months to complete from the time we started construction, and for me, this is Guinness Book of World Records quality,” said Naddeh.
The Aquatics Center has a 10-lane competition pool, eight-lane training pool, and a diving pool with a five-meter maximum depth.