Women's fencers end eight-year drought
Wang bags second gold as Vietnam continue to rule men's event
The Singapore women's fencing team led by veteran Wang Wenying stepped onto the piste at the OCBC Arena last night with only one goal.
To reclaim the South-east Asia (SEA) Games title on home soil.
And they did it in style, comfortably beating their Vietnamese opponents 45-26 to bag the country's second fencing title of the Games.
Wang, 34, won the individual women's foil gold on Tuesday.
Yesterday, she joined sisters Cheryl and Liane Wong to end an eight-year drought in the event.
Speaking after the victory, she praised her teammates for putting in an excellent performance.
"We waited very long for this gold medal. I trusted my teammates and we fought from the very first point," she told The New Paper.
Singapore's win prevented a clean sweep by the Vietnamese fencers yesterday, after they had won both the men's team epee and sabre events.
Wang insisted it was not an unexpected win, saying: "Our goal was to not give them any chance.
"We trained really hard and we expected this result."
The veteran fencer was in the 2011 SEA Games team that lost to Vietnam in the final, and she was determined to exact revenge.
The men's epee team could have added another gold to the bag, but lost out to a very strong Vietnamese team by a single point in extra time.
ATTACK
With both teams neck and neck at 43-43 and Singapore awarded priority, team anchor Lim Wei Wen tried to launch an attack in a bid to win the final point.
Instead, his opponent Nguyen Tien Nhat, who beat Lim in the individual event final, countered with a move that caught the Singaporean off guard and sealed the victory for Vietnam.
He was visibly disappointed, but Lim said: "I thought I had let the team down.
"But, looking back, this was a tremendous team effort and all of us gave 100 per cent.
"To hear the crowd cheer us on throughout the entire match already means so much to us, and we aim to do even better at the next competition."
Vietnam head coach Nguyen Thi Kim Nga praised the Singaporeans for their valiant display.
"It was a very good fight. But we were just that little bit stronger mentally and we were prepared to deal with the situation," she said.
"That is the difference between us and them."
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