Bronze Medal for Pesta Sukan

To be honest, I thought our chances of winning a medal, while present, were not very high. The other teams all seemed relatively strong, or at least, stronger than us. So naturally I was elated when we did manage to garner one.
I came at 9, 2 hours before my competition started as I needed to pay for license fees and blah. No fees, no fencing! Watched the foil guys fence and unfortunately succumbed one by one to stronger teams. But they certainly fought a good fight! First, we fenced Duxton Plain for a chance at 1st or 2nd. For the first time, I won my first bout! And she was a leftie and the anchorwoman! Was down 1-4 and caught up 4-4. On the last point, I attacked and missed. She came rushing forward and I did some half-hearted beatblade followed by riposte which somehow got me the point. The rest of the bouts went kinda crappily and I lost 3 points and later zero points. The combined 14 point gap that me, Charmaine and Yu Hua had amassed was too large for Liesl to catch up, and eventually we lost 37-45. The whole thing could have been won but no point crying over spilt milk I guess. I have to start parrying more because sometimes, running back down the piste just won't be able to save yourself from a hit.
THANK YOU SO MUCH, ALL OF THOSE WHO CAME DOWN TO SUPPORT AND GIVE ADVICE! TERENCE, DAVID, JX, REUBEN, DARREN, JOANNA, KANG WEI, DENISE, SANDRA, XIAO TING and all the other sabreurs for everything you guys have done for our team!
Ok, instead of angsting overly about that 0-5 bout, I went around watching the Blade Club's team and the RGS team fence. Secretly hoped Blade Club would win because the team consisted of people I knew (1st, 2nd and 3rd for Nationals Women's Sabre) and we would have an easier time fencing RGS than them. They won =P! Hovered around watching JX's team fencing and Reuben's team too. Both teams just had to be at opposite corners of the sports hall -_-. Reub's team was fencing David's, which would mean the final bout would be Darren VS David. They fought hard and chalked up a decent number of points with several well-timed and properly executed attacks before losing 22-45.
The time to fence RGS came and I went with trepeidation to face this new challenge. To be honest, I had a slight fear of the RGS anchorwoman Nellicia, partly due to her ear-splitting shrieks and whambang whacks. The first bout against Charlene went poorly and I lost 2 -5 points. When it was time to fence Nellicia, things somehow mircalously did not turn out as screwed up as I expected, apart from the last "dubious" point, and I managed to get 5 points off her while she got 4. On my last point, her wire fell out and she raised it as an issue. Liesl, thankfully, pointed out that it happened after I hit her, so still my point (phew!). Charmaine did pretty good too, scoring 6 quick points in almost continous succession against Charlotte. Fencing Charlotte, another rather decent sabreur in my opinion, was relatively lucky business. For 3 times, I missed her attack, beat her blade and forced mine through. Somehow, there was only one light! In any case, I was glad Liesl would have a much easier time fencing Nellicia and win the team bout she did! Went into throes of ecstatic screaming and hugging and jumping around. Juliana later said we were the first team in the history of RJC to win something for Pesta, a lot of it comes from Liesl =).
Visited 7-11 with Kalps, Darren and Reub to hydrate and we bid goodbye to her. Returned to Clementi Sports Hall to watch JX's team fencing for 3rd and 4th placing. They lost to the NUS team, which so happens to have 2 of our coaches :S. Choong Wing proved his zai-ness by keeping his composure and scoring the last glorious point to seal the victory at 44-45. It was an incredibly tense situation with all the eager eyes riveted on the bout. Derrick's team was 1st and David's 2nd (predictably). Collected the medal and went for an early dinner at nearby Momoya. Had a major suanning session, me being the target :(, and shared several jokes over sashimi, udon, basically Jap food. We chatted for about 2 hours ++ and left Momoya sated, especially JX. It has been a really good day and once again, thanks everyone for all of your support! RJC Fencing Rocks!