BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN — The Republic’s fencers made a clean sweep of the gold medals on offer on the opening day of the South-east Asian Fencing Federation (SEAFF) Junior and Cadet Championships 2013 yesterday.

At the Brunei capital, the women sabre fencers led the way by securing all four medals in the individual event, with Felicia Yam, Christabel Yong, Jolie Lee and Lau Ywen filling all the semi-final slots.

The final saw 20-year-old Yam overpowering 18-year-old team-mate Yong 15-4 to give Singapore a golden start.

The men’s foil individual event also saw an all-Singaporean final with 16-year-olds Joshua Lim and Christian Lim the pick of a 23-strong field.

A recent gold medallist at the South-east Asian Senior Championships in Ho Chi Minh City, Joshua counted on his experience to overcome Christian 15-4.

The women’s individual epee event saw a meeting of two old rivals in the final, with Singapore’s Rania Herlina Rahardja squaring off against Nguyen Thu Hien of Vietnam.

And it was 20-year-old Rania who triumphed by edging Nguyen 15-13.

“Both of us wanted this victory very badly as this is our last year as junior fencers,” said Rania. “I’ve never performed at my best at this level in the past years and Nguyen has also beaten me the past few times we’ve met, so this gold medal is extremely satisfying.”

Singapore also collected a bronze medal in this event through 15-year-old Donna Lim, who had lost to Nguyen in the semi-finals.

Fencing Singapore President Nicholas Fang was delighted with the opening day results.

“This validates the hard work being put in by our young fencers who are gearing up for the Asian Youth Games, Youth Olympic Games and other major events in the next three years,” said Fang.

“Fencing Singapore has been focused on developing our athlete development pipeline with our long term goals of medals at the 2014 Asian Games and qualification for the 2016 Olympics in Rio as our key targets.

“We are pleased that the latest results bode well for our future goals.”

The Republic are atop the medal standing with three gold, two silver and three bronze medals.

The biennial championship continues today with the men’s individual epee and sabre, as well as the women’s foil team events. PHILIP GOH