Fencing tourney draw today

The draw for the Sharp Asian fencing championships and the Asia/Oceania Olympic qualifying competitions will be held at 4 p.m. today at the Holiday Inn Galleria along Ortigas Avenue.

Ioan Pop of France, International Fencing Federation (FIE) representative, will conduct the draw, according to POC and PAFA (Philippine Amateur Fencers Association) president Celso Dayrit.

Close to 400 fencers from 23 countries are vying in the event organized by PAFA, sponsored by Sharp Phils. Inc. and supported by DOT, POC, PSC, PCSO, National Sports Grill, Philippine Star, DZSR Sports Radio, Holiday Inn Galleria and IMG.

Defending champion China and crack Korea, which have already earned slots in the Athens Olympics, are flying in only tomorrow. Scheduled to arrive today are fencers from Hong Kong, Singapore, Chinese Taipei and New Zealand.

Teams already in town are Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Macau, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Led by reigning world junior women’s epee champion Tan Li and Asian men’s foil titlist Zhang Lianglan, the Chinese are favored to retain the overall title. They won eight gold medals last year in Chiang Mai.

Dayrit is optimistic about the Filipino fencers’ qualifying chances. "The competition is keen, but our fencers have trained hard," said Dayrit yesterday.

The RP hopefuls are Emerson Segui and Veena Nuestro (foil), Wally Mendoza and Johanna Franquelli (sabre) and Armand Bernal and Harleen Orendain (epee).

Epee slots are up for grabs—two each in women’s sabre and foil and one each in men’s and women’s epee, men’s foil and men’s sabre—in the qualifier set tomorrow and Tuesday.