Tamkang Fencing Club had performed tremendously well in the inter-collegiate fencing tournament held in National Taiwan University on April 11. TKU’s Men foil team beat 30 teams and grabbed the gold medal that has been won by others for more than ten years, and Women foil team also took a silver medal in the tournament. “Our victory aroused a series of discussion on NTU’s PTT website. Many schools praise our accurate movement and want to know more fencing skills from us,” said happily by the team leader of TKU’s Men foil team Ping Keng-hao, a junior in Dept. of Aerospace Engineering.
Winning five games continuously within 12 hours in this double-elimination tournament, TKU’s Men foil team is consisted of three fencers, Ping Keng-hao, Lin Shen-teng, a junior of Dept. of Mechanical and Electro-Mechanical Engineering, who doubled as the leader of the TKU fencing club, as well as Wu Tung-chiao, a sophomore of Dept. of Germany. Ping indicated that the tournament was really challenging because they faced the strong adversaries with their experienced fencing skills.
TKU’s Men foil team adopted conservative strategy to fight against the team of National Taiwan Ocean University (NTOU) and scored several points at first. However, NTOU sent an experienced senior fencer at Round 4, whose imposing manner gradually brought TKU a tough game. “After we collected ourselves, we changed our strategy, trying to avoid their attack and interfering them with active offense and pressing tactic,” said Lin. Then, after the two teams tied for several times, the suggestions and cheering sounds from the seniors of TKU Fencing Club boosted TKU’s team morale and helped the team win the championship by 45 to 42.
TKU’s Women foil team is consisted of Shen Chia-ying and Chiang Hsin-yinga, two seniors in Dept. of Spanish, Lu Hsu-yin, a senior in Dept. of International Trade, and Tsai Hui-ju, a sophomore in Dept. of French. With their experienced skills and nice cooperation, they coasted through the tournament and into the finals. Yet at the finals, their rival from National Chengchi University fought them with high morale and the two teams ended in a tie when the first half game finished. In the end, TKU’s Women foil team were still defeated by 30 to 45 because of being disturbed by the losing points while running out of physical strength.
“However, the tournament gave us a valuable lesson, and I believe that we can do it better next time,” said Shen. Leader Lin also encouraged his club members that, “This is only a warm-up for the next tournament on May 7. From now on, we should have more physical training to win more victories!” ( ~Shu-chun Yen )
