Fencing concerns

Fencers practice hard at the Provincial Sports Training and Competition Center. Photo: Anh Tuan

Thanh Hoa's fencing department was established in 2017. Compared to localities with strong traditions in this sport such as Hanoi , Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong City... Thanh Hoa is about 10 years behind.

In the early days of its establishment, this sport faced many difficulties from selecting athletes for the first youth team to training equipment and tools. At that time, more than 10 teachers and students of Thanh Hoa fencing sport only had 2 swords for practice and competition. In 2021, to meet the development requirements of the sport in the period of 2021-2025, Coach Nguyen Van Dung from the taekwondo team was assigned the responsibility of being the head of the sport.

Fencing has the characteristic of recruiting later than many other sports, athletes are selected at the age of 10 - 12 and need to have intelligent thinking, comprehensive activities, and quick reflexes. Regarding physique, priority is given to long arm span and good height. To prepare for the future, developing the next generation of resources must always be a top priority, so finding athletes is always a concern of the department.

“The coaches and collaborators of the team have not been afraid of difficulties, traveling to localities in the province to search for and select new factors for the sport. It is even more difficult when students do not know much about this sport and few families want to send their children to practice fencing. Therefore, in each athlete selection event, we try to explain thoroughly so that parents and students can better understand this sport and agree to let their children practice,” said head coach of the fencing department Nguyen Van Dung.

In addition, the lack of sword practice and participation in competitions is always a constant concern. According to regulations, the State provides funding and mechanisms to buy swords, but the difficulty is that in our country there are no facilities or factories that produce them, because swords are in the list of sports weapons, requiring strict regulations on import. Meanwhile, domestic production is not possible, due to certain standards from the International Fencing Federation on training and competition equipment. This is also a type of "sensitive" equipment, so it must be strictly controlled. Therefore, athletes are currently having to practice with old swords, which do not guarantee quality or lack training equipment. This will certainly affect the training and quality of the athletes' training.

In the country, to help solve this problem, some teams send their athletes to train abroad. Meanwhile, the Thanh Hoa fencing department does not have much budget to participate in such programs. Moreover, this is a "costly" solution, not serving the majority of athletes. In the long term, there still needs to be a mechanism to ensure equipment reaches the hands of fencing athletes.

Faced with these difficulties, the team's coaching staff refused to back down. The fencing teachers and students made every effort to create many training tools, such as equipment simulations, fencing practice tools, etc., to help athletes improve their training experience. At the same time, they studied and consulted many exercises and good fighting methods of international fencers, from which they discussed and applied them in practice. In addition, in order to improve the athletes' skills, the fencing team also promoted participation in tournaments from youth to national level. Tournaments such as the national youth championship, the national U23 championship and the national championship are opportunities for athletes to gain experience and compete in a professional competition environment.

Currently, the Thanh Hoa fencing team has 1 coach, 5 provincial athletes, 4 youth athletes, and 13 talented athletes. In the national team, Thanh Hoa has 3 promising faces who have affirmed their class and continuously won gold medals at tournaments in recent years, including: Nguyen Quoc Viet Anh and Nguyen Thi Anh Thu in the sabre event and Bui Xuan Luc in the sabre event. In addition, the young and talented athletes are also being well trained and are considered to have great potential.

From the first medals in the youth and U23 tournaments in 2022, Thanh Hoa fencing won its first gold medal in the mixed fencing event for both men and women at the 2023 national championship. Also at the 2023 national youth fencing championship, the team won 1 gold medal, 4 silver medals and 3 bronze medals. After that initial success, in 2024, Thanh Hoa fencing won 1 gold medal, 4 silver medals, 3 bronze medals at the national youth championship; 1 gold medal, 2 bronze medals at the national championship; 1 bronze medal at the Southeast Asian championship. In 2025, at the national youth fencing championship, Thanh Hoa ranked second overall with 3 gold medals, 3 silver medals and 8 bronze medals. This achievement is not only a recognition of the efforts to overcome difficulties but also a motivation for the team to continue to develop strongly.

Head of the Training Management Department, Provincial Sports Training and Competition Center Nguyen Ngoc Hai said: “Fencing has been making every effort to promote its strengths and affirm its potential despite facing many challenges in terms of experience, building and developing its force, as well as a lack of training equipment. Along with the efforts of teachers and students of the subject, the center will continue to pay attention to and invest in facilities, promoting the training of athletes of the team, because this is an important stage to build and consolidate the next generation of athletes for the future, especially in preparation for the 10th National Sports Festival - 2026. At the same time, create conditions for them to participate in training and compete in tournaments. Thereby, the coaching staff will screen the force, discover talented athletes to invest in key and strategic areas for the following years”.

Mr. Tuan

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/tran-tro-bo-mon-dau-kiem-254681.htm