Once a year, fencers from all over Indonesia hold provincial level competitions. In order to compete at the national level, athletes must be in the rank of one to four out of all the participants in their respective province. This year, on 29th of October 2017, Banten held its Fencing Province Level Competition or Kejuaraan Daerah (Kejurda) at GOR Neglasari, Kota Tangerang, joined by five cities, Kota Tangerang Selatan, Kabupaten Tangerang, Kota Tangerang, Serang and Cilegon. Three of IULI’s students, Maria V. Nanette Maringka (INR 2015), Nicolas Wangsa (AVE 2016) and Andrean Wangsa (FTE 2017) participated in the competition, representing South Tangerang in Women’s Foil, Men’s Foil and Men’s Epée respectively, all in the Junior Division.
The fencers had to compete against four to six opponents in one pool. After passing the pool rounds, athletes proceed to the elimination rounds. The elimination round is conducted by accumulating scores from the pool rounds descending from first rank (highest score) to the last rank (lowest score). Whoever gets to 15 points first wins. There are 3 rounds of 3 minutes each with a 1 minute break between rounds.
Nicolas and Andrean did well in the pool rounds which placed them in the first rank of the competition before the elimination round, giving them an advantage in proceeding to the elimination round, while Nanette was not so successful in the pool round, which made it tougher in the elimination round. During the elimination round, Nicolas and Nanette did well, beating opponents in the semifinals, while Andrean fell a little short in the semifinals and lost in the very last second.
Nanette won the final round against the toughest opponent in the state while Nicolas fell short in the finals losing to one of the strongest fencers in the state and also in national level in his division.
To be able to participate in a state championship is an amazing opportunity for fencers, but also to be able to pursue their passion in life and win plenty of medals is pretty remarkable. The IULI fencers hope they can continue to pursue this sport as a hobby and, perhaps, as a career. Also, they hope to keep going and pursue this passion as a team and win some more medals for the state and for the university as well. Wish them luck for the national championships in November!
