by Arianne Mallare
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – It was a successful campaign for the Philippine Fencing Team on Tuesday, as they snatched one gold, two silver and one bronze medal at the on-going 29th Southeast Asian Games here.
Two Filipino fencers faced off in the men’s individual foil event of fencing, whoever wins, a sure gold and silver for the Philippines.
From the both sides of the Piste, Brennan Wayne Louie and Nathaniel Perez sweep their opponents to secure spots in the finals.
Brennan, a member of the Philippine squad who snatched silver in the men’s team foil event on the previous edition of SEA Games in 2015, rush to Perez to control the game.
He even made a 14-to-10 advantage, one more points left, then he could bring home his goal of winning the gold medal, but Perez immediately retrieve and scores four consecutive points to tie the game – 14-all.
Louie tightens his focus and doubled his effort to make a clean hit and so to finally dominate Perez, 15-14.
“The highlight was the last touch. we always argue to practice, Brennan that’s not yours, Brennan that’s not yours, Brennan that’s yours! oh, thank god.” said Louie.
Louie also motivated everyone to pursue their passion like him, “Do what you want because you love it, do that… do things because you like them and you wanna pursue that passion because you love them.”
Meanwhile, Pinay bet Hanniel Abella bowed to Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Hoa in the women’s individual epee finals, 10-15 while another Philippine athlete Harlene Raguin settled for bronze medal. (Arianne Mallare – PTV Sports)