THE ATENEO Men’s Fencing Team hauled its first gold medal in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 82 Men’s Fencing Tournament on Tuesday, February 12, at the Paco Arena, Manila City. Individual Foil was the lone men’s event on the second day of the tournament.

Men’s Individual Foil

Jolo Viceo and Anton Alianan suited up for the Blue and White in the Men’s Individual Foil event. After their stellar performances in the poulings, both Viceo and Alianan advanced to the quarterfinals with a 4-0 and 3-1 record, respectively.

Alianan, who was seeded fourth, dueled with Samuel Mangarin, the fifth seed, from the University of Santo Tomas (UST) in the tableau of eight. Alianan fell into a deficit midway, 6-9, but managed to crawl his way back and take the lead, 12-10. However, Mangarin’s successive points at the end forced Alianan to bow out of the competition, 13-15.

Meanwhile, the first-seeded Viceo took out UST’s Joseph Amores in the quarterfinals, 15-10. He went on to fence against Mangarin in the next round. Viceo trailed in the opening sequences but kept the scoreline close. Viceo then took the lead at 9-8 and almost ran away with the win. At 14-11, Mangarin scored three successively to take it to the final point, but it was Viceo who had the last word, entering the finals with 15-14 scoreline.

For the gold medal-decider, Viceo faced the second seed, Sam Tranquilan of the University of the East. However, an injury hampered Viceo’s finals performance; Viceo had been grimacing in pain because of his right arm for most of the semifinals bout, and it looked like he was in even more pain when he asked to get his left leg treated while down 0-2 in the finals. 

Regardless, Viceo kept himself afloat until Tranquilan went up by four at 9-13. The deficit was trimmed to 12-13 before Tranquilan brought it to match point, 12-14. Down but not out, Viceo did not let go of the bout. He stormed back for three consecutive points, capturing his first-ever gold medal in the UAAP.

“I’m really proud of [the finals win] because this is my first UAAP gold ever since high school,” Viceo said after his clutch performance. “It’s really meaningful because in my first-year high school, I’ve gone up against [Tranquilan] and he just dominated me then.” 

The Ateneo Men’s Fencing Team will resume their campaign Thursday, February 13, at Paco Arena, Manila City. The Men’s Team Saber is scheduled at 9:00 AM while Men’s Team Epee is set to begin at 1:00 PM.