SOPHIA Shekinah Catantan, the youngest sister of fencing star Samantha, lived up to her family’s reputation by taking one of two golds that Filipino fencers won in the 1st Hefeng National Junior Fencing Championships in Taiwan over the weekend.
The 13-year-old Sophia joined Canlas Fencing top bet Marcus Antonio Manuel in grabbing the top honors at stake in the 17-under women’s foil and the 15-under men’s foil action, respectively.
The young Catantan fought off Li Zhixian, 15-4, in the final round to claim the top honors.
Her feat comes three months after she took home the top honors in the girls’ division of the 85th University Athletic Association of the Philippines tournament while playing for University of the East.
Manuel turned back Zhang Tingzhou, 15-10, for the gold medal, his second podium finish.
He got one of the two silvers that the Philippines won after settling for a runner-up finish to David Bishay of Olympic Fencing, 10-15, in the 17-under men’s foil finals.
Vereza Boy claimed the other silver medal after bowing to Yu Chaeyung, 6-15, in the 17-under women’s sabre event.
Boy reached the gold-medal round after hurdling Filipino fencer Kyra Cleto, 15-11.
Yunna Canlas, who took a bronze medal, marched to the 11-under women’s foil semifinals with her 15-11 win over Chenwei Du, before Alisa Chen stopped her, 2-10, to reach the finals.
Alyssa Villacin snared a second bronze with her 10-9 triumph over We Penghe in the quarterfinals of the 9-under women’s sabre, and a 3-10 setback to Wang Man, 3-10.
Victoria Ebdane and Catantan also finished with bronzes in the 15-under women’s foil.
Also claiming bronze medals were Jodie Tan in the 13-under women’s foil and Leeroi Chan in the 11-under men’s foil.
Youngsters numbering 50 from various clubs and schools in the Philippines joined the weekend-long meet.
This includes entries from the Canlas Fencing Academy and Republic Fencing, who competed in the three weapons of fencing – foil, epee and sabre.
To reach the direct elimination round, Catantan won four matches, and lost two in the Pool 2 action, before prevailing over Destinee Tan in the round of 16, and Fang Zhongqi, 15-7, in the quarterfinals.
A 15-9 triumph over Alisa Chen allowed Catantan to advance to the finals against Liu.