Kota Kinabalu: Adam Nicholas Lindbichler made the country proud when he finished among the top 80 at the recent World Championship held in Catania, Italy.The sabre fencer, who was making his debut in the competition, stamped his mark by outshining some of the more seniors team mates with his feats. When met at the Kota Kinabalu international airport on Saturday upon his arrival, he said it was a very tough competition and was very happy to be given exposure in a world seniors arena.
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He said he had to compete in the qualifying rounds first where he met six competitors from other countries."It was not easy as all of us wanted to make it to the elimination round and I managed to defeat three of them to make it to the next round."
The elimination round saw him competing with a Greek opponent and after some tough fights he lost the tie 10-15 due to inexperience."The trip has taught me a lot of things. It was a very good learning experience. Basically I got to meet all the world top fencers in person.
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It was an eye opener as previously I only saw them on the television or on the internet where I tried to learn the skills by copying them." He said the competition enabled him to observe and learn from some of the best in the world and he was also able to approach them to get some tips.
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He admitted that he has to improve in a lot of areas in order to be at par with them."Well, there are so many areas to work on, the understanding of priority, the technical aspects as well. But with my coaches and the support of the association, I am sure I would be able to improve further."He also thanked the Youth and Sports Minster Datuk Peter Pang En Yin and the Ministry, the Sabah Sports Board, the Sabah Sports council, the National Fencing Federation, the state fencing association and his sponsor City Top for their support. Adam was among six male fencers from the country participating in the championship.The national body was using the World Championship as preparation for their main challenge at the Indonesian Sea Games next month. Meanwhile, Adam's mentor Alex Sham who is also the president of the Sabah Fencing association said Adam's success has motivated them to try even harder to produce more world class fencers.'We are very proud of him because he has outperformed some of the more senior fencers in the country during the championship. His results indicated that our years of efforts are finally paying off despite many challenges.""It wasn't easy to train novices to reach world standards. It takes years to see the fruits and in Adam's case, it took us eight years."
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Alex also believes that Adam will go far and he said the association will be sending him for more overseas training stints so that he could reach even higher goals."If he can manage the top 80 now there should not be any problems for him to reach top sixty, top forty or even higher in the future."