Tamkang Fencing Club had performed tremendously well in the inter-colligiate fencing tournament held in National Taiwan Ocean University on September 20 and 21, winning the gold medal in sabre team Men category and a bronze medal in foil team Women category.

“I was really nervous at the beginning of the game but I kept telling myself not to be afraid and to keep my head cool,” said Lee Chen-chuan, a junior student in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, who is also the team leader of TKU’s Men sabre team. The Men’s saber team is consisted of four fencers, Lee, Pan Jen-hsuan, a senior in the Department of English, Lin Hsin-teng, sophomore in the Department of Mechanical and Electro-Mechanical Engineering, as well as Ping Keng-hao, a sophomore in the Department of Aerospace Engineering. In the championship game, all the members of the TKU men’s saber team had all stayed calm in facing the strong opponents from Shi Pai Junior High School, whose team members are fencing coaches, TKU team finally won the first place.

Meanwhile, the TKU’s foil team Women that grabbed the bronze medal in the 16-tournment is consisted of four fencers. They are Hsu Yueh-shan, a freshman in Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, who doubled as the president of the TKU fencing club, Chou Chia-i, a junior in the Department of Statistics, Shen Chia-ying, a junior in the Department of Spanish, and Lu Hsu-yin,a junior in the Department of International Trade. “To keep the team morale high is the most important factor for the team to perform well in the tournament,” said Shen. Shen added that there were also many supporters of her club to show up in the tourney to cheer for them which made her group perform even better. At the beginning, however, the team members had a difficult time to accustom to the new arena in Ocean University, in which the fencing strip was much narrower than the one in Tamkang. After familiarizing with the narrow strip, the team started to warm up and had good performance in the games. The team, however, lost in the semifinal game and failed to be qualified to compete for the gold medal. “I keep telling my teammates not to give up and we will definitely perform even better next time,” said Hsu.

Chou said that the moment she was awarded the bronze medal, she immediately felt that all the painful training process in the summer was worthwhile. Aside from the intensive fencing training, the club occasionally hold outdoor activities to promote closer ties and relations among club members to make all the club just like a big family. Sometimes the graduated alumni would come back to club to help teaching junior club members on fencing skills. ( ~Yeh Yun-kai )