October NAC: Day 4 Recap

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Sometimes a fencer’s shot at redemption must wait several weeks or months. Other times, it comes less than 48 hours later.

After being cut following the second round of pools in Division I Men’s Foil on Saturday, Caleb Jeon (Silicon Valley Fencing Center) had another chance at the podium on Monday in the Junior Men’s Foil competition. 

Jeon rose up to greet the moment on Monday at the October North American Cup in Atlantic City and will return to California with a gold medal.

“It honestly means everything,” he says. “I didn't expect this result, but it was definitely rewarding.”

Jeon says he listened to his coach and his friends this tournament, and each had some sound advice.

“My friends helped put me back on track, especially when I'm losing focus and I don't think my game is there,” Jeon says. “My coach told me to just focus on the fencing and don't let things outside of fencing impact your own fencing, like referee calls.”

It was a different story for Canada’s Olympian Ruien (Angel) Xiao, who was looking to duplicate her result from two days earlier. Xiao won the Junior Women’s Epee competition with a stunning finals comeback and came back for more in Monday’s Division I Women’s Epee event. 

Xiao says she focused on taking one point at a time throughout the competition, which helped her gradually build a lead.

“I think throughout the entire day in my head, I was just repeating — the score is 0-0,” she says “Just one point at a time, and we slowly made it to the top.”

Yuju Jeon (Scarsdale Fencing Center) has fenced at tournaments in Korea, but this was her first competition in the United States. 

She looked strong on Saturday in the Junior Women’s Saber competition, finishing 30th out of 278 competitors. 

“The timings are different,” Jeon says of the experience fencing in America after having fenced in Korea. “So I was kind of nervous, and I lost.”

She spent the downtime reviewing videos of her bouts — watching each one 15 times or more, she says. 

“So I was like, I'm gonna get a gold medal,” she says. “I’m so happy.”

Jeon says the win motivates her to continue traveling to North American Cup tournaments and training hard.

“This is a big thing to me. I’m going to come to every NAC,” she says. “I'm going to work hard every single day.”