The 21-year-old from Malacca made the grade for London in individual sabre by virtue of being the second ranked fencer in the Asian rankings at the end of the qualification period at end of March.
Fencers from countries who have qualified for the team event through the world meet are not considered and it paved the way for Peng Kean, who is ranked 69th in the world, to become only the second Malaysian fencer to compete at the Olympics.
Ronnie Theseira was the first, having represented the country at the Tokyo Olympics in Tokyo in 1964. He was also the first president of the Malaysian Fencing Federation.
Peng Kean got good ranking points after placing ninth and seventh in the 2010 and 2011 Asian Championships respectively.
It is another feather in the cap for Malaysian fencing following its superb showing at the Indonesia SEA Games last November.
The fencers delivered two gold medals – the best achievement for the sport in SEA Games history as the current crop of fencers from Bandar Penawar Sports School in Johor reaches maturity.
Peng Kean combined with Liong Ming Cheng, Nurul Ariezzat Nazreen Ismail and Muhammad Radhi Hashim to deliver a first-ever gold for Malaysia in the men’s sabre team event while Joshua Koh grabbed the first gold in the individual epee in Jakarta.
National Sports Council (NSC) director general Datuk Zolkples Embong said Peng Kean will be included in the Road to London programme, enabling him to receive a monthly allowance of RM2,500. Aquatics, archery, badminton, cycling, shooting, football and hockey were the earlier sports placed under the Road to London programme.
“Fencing was not included in the Road to London programme before but they have produced the results now,” said Zolkples.
“We have a fencer who has qualified on merit ... it is a big achievement to get to London.
“We have funded training stints for the fencers in South Korea and Italy and they’ve delivered the medals at the SEA Games.
“We will discuss with the coach about the training programme for the fencer and he will get more exposure to prepare him for the Olympics.”
The sports that have qualified athletes for the Olympics in July so far are archery (4), diving (9), cycling (2) and shooting (1).
A total of 33 athletes from nine sports took part in the Beijing Olympics four years ago but Zolkples does not expect as many to qualify this time although more are expected to come through badminton, track cycling and swimming.
THE STAR
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