As we head towards the exciting opening ceremony of Season 87 of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP), let us congratulate anew the UE athletes that waved the Red Warrior banner up high in the UE-hosted UAAP Season 86 and beyond!
These most notably are the UE Women’s and Girls’ Judo Teams and the UE Fencing Teams, plus the UE Zenith Warriors Esports Team, and, in the Paris Olympics 2024, Philippine and Warrior Olympian Samantha Kyle L. Catantan!
In the UE-hosted UAAP 86 judo tournaments held on November 30 and December 1, 2023, at the Marikina Sports Center, the UE Red Warriors Women’s and Girls’ Judo Teams emerged as the Champions of their respective UAAP 86 tournaments!
This marked the third consecutive UAAP championship for the Warrior Lady Judokas, after becoming Champions in UAAP Seasons 82 and 85. (Season 83 was cancelled while Season 84 only had a small selection of sports, all due to the Covid-19 pandemic.)
To read about the UE Red Warriors Girls’ Judo Team’s UAAP 86 victory, please click here: https://web.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=736169448536152&set=a.621495613336870
Meanwhile, the UE Red Warriors Fencing Teams successfully defended their respective championships in the UAAP as the entire team copped all four championships in the UAAP Season 86 Fencing Tournaments!
This marked the Warrior Fencers’ third consecutive UAAP championships sweep and 10th overall since 2012.
The UAAP 86 fencing tournaments were held from March 14 to 17, 2024, at the UST Quadricentennial Pavilion in Sampaloc, Manila.
More about the UE Red Warriors Fencing Teams’ victory here: https://web.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=798146845671745&set=a.621495620003536
Meanwhile, the UE Zenith Warriors, the University’s esports athletes, made history on August 21, 2024, by winning the championship of the inaugural Mobile Legends esports tournament of the UAAP!
More about the UE Zenith Warriors’ victory here: https://web.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=896420259177736&set=a.621495620003536
To top it all, Miss Samantha Kyle L. Catantan, a graduate of the UE Basic Education Department-Manila and a multi-awarded former member of the UE Red Warriors Fencing Girls’ Team, concluded her valiant recent run on the world stage via the Paris 2024 Olympics, facing off against tough competitors in her first ever Olympic foray and the first ever for a Filipina fencer.
She competed on July 28, 2024, at the Grand Palais in Paris, France, after becoming the first Filipino fencer in 32 years to qualify for the Olympics. This came after ruling the Women’s Foil event of the Asia-Oceania Zonal Olympic Qualifier on April 27, 2024, at Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, where Miss Catantan edged Kazakhstan’s Sofiya Aktayeva, 15-14, in the final.
Touted by the Philippine Fencing Association as the number 1 foil fencer in the Philippines, the multi-awarded Miss Catantan earned her Accountancy degree from the Pennsylvania State University in August 2024—days following her Olympics stint. She was a part of Penn State’s varsity fencing team, the Nittany Lions.
Miss Catantan had earned her Senior High School diploma, With Honors, as an Accountancy, Business and Management strand graduate of the UE Basic Education Department-Manila, during UE Manila’s first ever virtual SHS Commencement Rites on November 14, 2020.
During her stint with the UE Red Warriors Girls’ Fencing Team, Miss Catantan helped steer the squad to consecutive championships in the girls’ division of the annual UAAP fencing tournaments, and was the consecutive Most Valuable Player awardee in the fencing girls’ division of UAAP Seasons 78, 79, 80, 81 and 82. She was also the Rookie of the Year for the same division of UAAP 77.
In 2022, she won the gold medal in women’s foil in the 31st Southeast Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam, and the silver medal in the same event in the 32nd SEAG in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in 2023.
As in the UAE, Miss Catantan was joined in Paris by a small contingent led by Coach Rolando T. Canlas Jr. as Philippine Fencing Association (PFA) Program Adviser and Coach.
Huge congratulations, UE Red Warriors Athletes! Go Fight, Red and White! GO FIGHT, RED AND WHITE!
Photos by The UAAP FB Page (UE Judo Team) , the overall UE Fencing Team, the UAAP Media Team (UE Esports Team,) and One Sports (Miss Catantan)
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