Fencer Kiria Tikanah storms into women’s epee semis to seal S’pore’s fourth Asian Games medal

NAGOYA – National fencer Kiria Tikanah secured Singapore a fourth medal at the 2026 Asian Games, after booking her spot in the women’s epee semi-finals on Sept 22.

At the Aichi Sky Expo, the 26-year-old beat Kazakhstan’s reigning Asian champion Irina Bakaldina 15-14 in the quarter-finals to earn her place in the last four.

Since losing semi-finalists are awarded joint bronzes, the three-gold SEA Games medallist is guaranteed a medal.

In the pool round earlier that day, Kiria placed second in Pool 3, after four of her five bouts.

The 2025 Asian championships individual epee bronze medallist received a bye into the table of 16, before beating Japan’s Miho Yoshimura 14-13 to advance to the quarter-finals.

This is Singapore’s first women’s epee medal and only their third in fencing at the quadrennial event.

Lim Wei Wen won the Republic’s first medal in the sport in 2014 when he claimed the men’s epee bronze, before the women’s foil team clinched bronze at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.

At the previous edition of the Games in 2023, Kiria finished 15th after she was eliminated in the table of 16.

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