ACHIEVEMENT

USM Close Fencing Championship was held at the end of Sept 2007 as a platform to boost the interest of our newly recruited fencers into this unique and special combat sports which acquired not only physical but also mental strength in order to excel in it. In March 2008, 10 fencers comprised of 7 guys and 3 female fencers represented USM in UMS Fencing Open Championship.

In UMS Open which is the 1st major competition we took part , we achieved satisfactory result as a rookie team where we won 2 bronzes in foil mixed team event and women's individual epee event. Besides that, although being the 1st batch of fencers under USM Fencing Club, 2 of our fencers were recruited into Penang Fencing Team based on our commitment and excellent performance in training as well as competition. They have represented Penang in the Danga Bay International Games 2008 and SUKMA 2008 as state fencers.

Now, USM Fencing Club just celebrated it's 1 year old birthday. We have currently recruited 60 new members where 20 of them remained as active members. In September, we successfully held the 2nd USM Close Fencing Championship 2008 where a few new talents are identified through this competition.

In Penang Close Competition 2008, a few juniors represented USM in this first stage of sirkit competition and showed promising performance where they won a few bronzes although this is only their 1st competition. Overall, with the contribution of senior fencers, USM Fencing Club won 2 gold's, 1 silver and 4 bronzes. Moreover, under "Warga Sukan" Scheme of USM, we recruited a state fencer, Ms Seng Yuh Min this year. She won a few major local and international tournaments representing the state of Penang and the country as well. The most established one was the Navy Open Fencing Championship held in Thailand where she won gold and bronzes in it.

For now, the fencers are trained under Mr. Lim Peng Jin who is the secretary of PAFA and our volunteer coach. With the help of other senior fencers, the juniors are progressing well, although more exposure is needed for greater improvement. In Nov, USM Fencing Club has been invited to join Touche Inter College & University Fencing Championship 2008 held by Touche Fencing Club. This will be one of the major tournament in our calender, around 12-15 fencers will be representing USM. Moreover, we will have a representatives in Fencing Grand Prix, UMS Open and other competitions as well.