Youth Olympic Fencing: Lim Wei Hao makes quarter-finals but just misses out on semis

Story by Noor Farhan/Red Sports. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports

International Convention Centre, Monday, August 16, 2010 — Singaporean fencer Lim Wei Hao did the country proud by progressing into the quarter-finals in the Cadet Male Individual Epee competition after a patiently fought 15-11 victory over Czech Republic’s fifth seeded Ondrej Novotny in the Round of 16.

However, his quarterfinal opponent Alexandre Lyssov proved to be too much as he went down 13-15 in a nail-biting encounter that went down into the final seconds. This was despite Wei Hao trouncing him 5-3 earlier on in the pool round.

Earlier in the day, the 17-year-old Catholic Junior College student had a pool round to forget, in which he faced six top fencers in his group and only managed one victory.

His first bout in the preliminaries involved an initial encounter against Ondrej Novotny of the Czech Republic which he narrowly lost 3-4.

After Wei Hao’s victorious second bout against Canada’s Lyssov, he was unable to carry on his good form in the third round as the attacking stance of his German opponent, Nikolaus Bodoczi, proved too hot to handle and he eventually lost that duel 0-5.

Bouts four and five displayed Wei Hao’s excellent defensive play, even as he stumbled 3-5 against Costa Rica’s Julian Godov and 4-5 against Lucian Ciovica of Romania after responding to their attacks thrust-for-thrust in the early stages of both bouts.

The final bout against Na Byeong Hun of South Korea proved a bridge too far for the defensively-styled Wei Hao and he succumbed to a 2-5 defeat in the end.

“I feel that I can do much better later on. Coming into the competition, I just wanted to do my very best since I have nothing to lose,” said Wei Hao, upon finishing his preliminary bouts.

“It doesn’t matter from which background my opponents come from, but what is important is that I focus on what I have to do,” he quipped, as he prepared himself for the round of 16.

The do-or-die duel in the last 16 saw much more attacking moves from Wei Hao, as he took a 4-3 lead 1:17 into the first round. His Czech opponent had no reply, and Wei Hao won 8-4.

The Singaporean epee specialist’s confidence grew as he slowly built up an unassailable lead to end his second round 12-8.

In the final round, Czech Republic’s Ondrej Novotny tried to catch up while trailing 10-14 with 21 seconds left. Eventually the home crowd’s boisterous cheering got to his head as he succumbed to an 11-15 loss to his Singaporean counterpart, putting Wei Hao into the last eight of the individual epee event.

“I could sense that he (Novotny) was fearful of the crowd and so I decided to capitalise on that and gave all I got,” said Wei Hao, on his victory.

The quarter-final bout between Wei Hao and Canada’s Lyssov saw both fencers feeling each other out cautiously in the first round, with Canada’s Lyssov emerging tops with a scoreline of 2-1.

The second round was no better as both players did not come out of their defensive shells even as Wei Hao managing to gain ground. He eventually lost 3-4 to the Canadian.

In the last round, Wei Hao managed to tie his opponent at 4-4 with partisan support from the local crowd with their colourful clappers. He managed to edge his opponent 7-6 at 1:49, but fate had other ideas for the intrepid local fencer.

Mustering all the resolve he could, Canada’s Alexandre Lissov kept his cool and managed to eventually overcome the Lion City’s Lim Wei Hao with a final score of 15-13 to progress to the semi-finals.

“I feel that there is room for improvement, still much to learn. My opponent (Lyssov) did not seem to be affected by the cheering, (he) kept his cool and won it in the end,“ reflected Wei Hao on the defeat.

Singaporean fencers will again compete at the International Convention Centre on Tuesday, August 17th. In the two gold medal events, Justin Ong will compete in the foil category at 9.00am while Rania Rahardja will fence in the individual epee category at 1pm.