Fencing: Top athletes to compete in S'pore, which will host one leg of new pro league

SINGAPORE - Fencing is a niche sport in Singapore and its athletes are hardly household names, but the Fencing Professionals Assembly (FPA) is aiming to change that with its debut here in 2023.

Singapore will host one leg of the FPA, a three-stop private league that is the brainchild of Italian fencing equipment company Carmimari, in the first quarter of 2023.

The other two legs will be held in Doha and Milan, with plans for a fourth in the mix.

Its chief executive Francesco Rossi has ambitious plans for the first-ever professional series in the sport, touting it as a game changer like the professional International Swimming League (ISL) and golf's PGA Tour.

Launched to much fanfare in 2019, the ISL featured an innovative concept such as a team-based competition format and fast-paced sessions.

Like what ISL has done to professionalise swimming, Rossi's vision is for the league to raise the profile of the sport by giving athletes a chance to shine beyond major Games like the Olympics and events that are sanctioned by world governing body International Fencing Federation (FIE).

He said: "It's not a competition against something that's already existing. If you see fencers at the Olympics, there is a great movement and that movement has a structure.

"But it's like looking at a pyramid and you're looking at just the tip of the pyramid, but you need to create a strong base to let people know the pyramid exists - like how tennis goes to the Olympics but has Wimbledon."

While he declined to reveal the fencers who will compete in the league, Rossi said that Olympic medallists and world champions are part of the line-up. There will also be a prize pool at the FPA tournaments.

A pilot event will be held in Singapore in end-2022 before the FPA officially kicks off in 2023.

With Singapore seeing the return of marquee sports events like the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix after a hiatus brought about by the pandemic, Fencing Singapore secretary general David Chen hopes that more fencing events can be added to the country's sporting calendar.

Over the weekend, Singapore staged the FIE Satellite Tournament - Women's Foil, the first FIE-sanctioned event to be held in the country.

Chen said: "Recently we've seen some really successful events like the Singapore Tennis Open and it's quite clear that Singapore is becoming a hub for sports development and for alternative forms of competition like the F1 night race.

"Singapore has a reputation for that and we want to be one of the pioneers (for fencing). National sports associations are looking to be more independent - we've got good support from the Government but we want to take the opportunity to be innovative."

On Sunday, Fencing Singapore also hosted a dinner to honour the SEA Games fencers, who won a record six gold, four silver and five bronze medals at the regional competition in May.

After this best-ever haul, the association is turning its sights to next year's Asian Games in Hangzhou, where technical director Marko Milic feels they have a decent chance to achieve two bronze medals.

At the 2018 Asian Games, the women's foil team comprising Amita Berthier, Maxine Wong, Tatiana Wong and Melanie Huang clinched bronze to bag the Republic's first-ever team medal at the competition.

Milic believes they can repeat the feat, also highlighting the women's epee and sabre teams as potential medallists.

He said: "We believe we have a stronger team this time in the women's foil and we're also looking at the open possibility of the other weapon teams to get medals. I think we're on track - we've got a strong generation of talented athletes."

Foil fencer Cheung Kemei believes that their performances at recent competitions also bodes well for them.

Cheung, Berthier, Maxine and Denyse Chan clinched a joint-bronze medal in the women's team foil at the Asian Fencing Championships in Seoul in June - the nation's first medal in the event since 2010.

She said: "Apart from SEA Games, we've been fencing at the Asian Championships and World Championships against teams from other Asian countries and that has helped us gain more confidence."