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SINGAPORE – When Juliana Seow was asked to run for the position of Fencing Singapore (FS) president in 2013, she never expected herself to stay in the role for over a decade. A year after winning the election, she was diagnosed with Graves’ Eye Disease, an autoimmune disorder affecting the thyroid, with doctors telling her that she could go blind. Fortunately, the complications of her condition were not as severe as initially feared, and she was able to stay on. After 11 years, the former national sabreur will be stepping down as president at the association’s annual general meeting on Sept 20 after choosing not to run for another term. She will be replaced by current Fencing Singapore secretary-general and former national fencer David Chen. Seow, 52, said: “I had made my intentions clear at the last election that this was going to be my last term now that there is more stability in the sport of fencing.” Under Seow’s leadership, Singapore’s fencers have established themselves as powerhouses in South-east Asia. At the 2011 SEA Games, Singapore were bottom of the medal table in fencing, with one silver and two bronzes. Since then, they have topped the standings at the past three SEA Games, finishing with a record haul of seven golds, three silvers and six bronzes at the most recent Cambodia edition in 2023. There have also been major milestones for the sport, with several breakthroughs on the Asian level. At the 2018 Asian Games, the national women’s foil team bagged a bronze – Singapore’s first team medal at the event – before foilist Amita Berthier Berthier and epee fencer Kiria Tikanah also became the first Singaporean fencers to qualify for the Olympics after booking their spots at the Tokyo Games, with the duo Seow stressed that these successes were only possible because of collaboration between the sport’s stakeholders through initiatives such as including partner coaches in their high performance system to provide the best training environment for athletes. Admitting that it was not easy to find suitable and willing candidates to fill the role, Seow backed her former teammate Chen to succeed, describing him as “athlete-centric with the correct amount of empathy and smarts”. She said: “There are a lot of factors that go into success, which should not be measured by just medals. Athletes (and parents) sacrifice a lot in terms of time, effort and resources to represent their country and deserve support as long as they have put in their best. “I have confidence that David and the new team are well placed to guide FS, and it will be for the new exco to bring fencing to greater heights.” For Chen, 40, taking on the role will help ensure a smooth transition from the previous executive committee to the new one. He and his team have already laid out some goals for their four-year term, which include winning more medals at the Asian Games, making fencing a sport for the masses and reducing the attrition rate among elite fencers. “To build a strong pipeline, we need mass engagement, we need a community to grow,” said Chen, an entrepreneur in agriculture and former Singapore Sports School fencing coach. “If you look at high performance, it’s been proven that our Asian build in fencing, we’re not at a disadvantage… but to do that, we need more fencers.” He shared that the current secretariat conducted some pilot projects with primary schools in the past year and hopes to continue working with schools and clubs to introduce fencing in the physical education curriculum. He added: “We see the potential of the sport, that’s why we really want to grow it. If you look at the way we define top sports in Singapore, typically besides high performance, it’s usually sports that the majority of Singaporeans can participate in and that’s really a dream we need to get to.”