DAENA Talavera narrowly missed a historic first medal for the Philippines in the 2021 World Junior and Cadet Fencing Championships after putting up a valiant stand against Moldova’s Maria Cojocari in a 14-15 quarterfinals loss in the cadet women’s individual foil event in Cairo, Egypt on Wednesday.
The US-based Talavera had a chance to make it to the semifinals and gain an automatic podium finish after forcing a 14-14 tie but Cojocari delivered the winning point that sent her to the next phase.
Touted as one of the future stars of Philippine fencing, the 16-year old Talavera ended up in seventh out of 57 entries in her final year competing in the cadets section of the world meet.
An 11th grade student of Clayton High School in Missouri, Talavera won all her five bouts in the pools, scoring a 5-1 victory over Kaitlyn McGillion-Moore of Ireland, a 5-3 decision against Malak Hamza of Egypt, a 5-4 squeaker over Minchae Shin of South Korea, a 5-2 win over Jessie Chem of Canada and a 5-0 blanking of Dippamshi Netam of India.
After drawing a bye in the first round, Talavera beat Marjona Usmonova of Uzbekistan, 15-11, and Malak Hamza of Egypt, 15-7, to advance into the round of eight.
Talavera earlier finished in 69th place in the juniors women’s individual foil event, where the Philippine ace Samantha Catantan achieved a top 20 finish and US-based fencer Annika Santos settled for 58th spot.
Lance Tan, a young fencer who is also based in the US, ranked 23rd in the juniors men’s individual foil.
“The Philippine Fencing Team is proud of you all,” said national coach Amat Canlas.
