Bangkok: Next month’s 2025 SEA Games in Thailand is set to be a crucial launching pad for the national fencing team to be restored under the National Sports Council’s (NSC) programme after being dropped in 2013.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, Mohammad Hairi Abdullah, the manager of the fencing team bound for the SEA Games, mentioned that the fencers have a good chance of being reabsorbed into NSC’s training programme if they can shine at the biennial Games from Dec 9-20. He noted that the national team, which includes 17 fencers competing in three disciplines-foil, epee, and sabre-aims to return with two gold medals, though a better medal haul is not ruled out.

Mohammad Hairi expressed that if the national fencing team can achieve or exceed the target set, a place in NSC’s programme awaits them. He hopes that the fencers can perform well and get back into the NSC programme, which they believe they deserve to be in. He stated that they hope to bring back one gold medal or at least two bronze medals.

Curr
ently, the national squad is training overseas based on their discipline, including in South Korea, Italy, the United States, Japan, and Singapore. They will reassemble in Malaysia before undergoing the final phase of their training camp ahead of the biennial Games.

For the record, the fencing team won four bronze medals in the 2023 edition in Cambodia and one silver and three bronze medals in the 2021 edition in Hanoi, Vietnam. Malaysia last won the fencing gold in the 2011 edition in Indonesia through Muhammad Radhi Hasim, Yu Peng Kean, and Liong Ming Chan in the men’s team sabre event, as well as Joshua Koh in men’s individual epee.