Catantan needs 10 months to fully recover after ACL surgery

Samantha Catantan, the top women's foil fencer of the Philippine Team, has been given 10 months to regain her deadly form and return to a high-level competition as a world caliber athlete.

A week after her left knee ACL or anterior cruciate ligament) surgery under renowned Dr. Raul Canlas, Catantan had her first assessment by the popular sports surgeon and the diagnosis is two months less of a full year back to her full strength in fencing.

“By that time, I'm already competitive,” Catantan told The Manila Times on Saturday, June 17 in a telephone interview, or a day after her check up with Canlas at St. Luke's Medical Center at Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City.

Catantan said that in that 10-month period, she would undergo a rigorous rehabilitation and therapy program, and then followed it up with conditioning to prepare her for fencing training.

The 21-year-old Catantan said that even if she is now allowed to do fencing foot works in the next couple of months she can still do training sessions with her sword to keep her active, and not stagnant.

Samantha Catantan SEAG POOL PHOTO

That 10-month period gives her ample time to prepare for the Paris Olympics and that is via the continental championship where the winner gets a spot to the Games. Catantan will be eyeing the Asia-Oceania zonal tournament scheduled April 15-30 next year.

In 2021, she nearly made it after advancing to the semifinals of the Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) in Uzbekistan – the Asian qualifier for the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Catantan, an incoming fourth year student at Penn State University, hurt her left knee during the semifinal round of the Cambodia SEA Games. Because of the injury, she was forced to withdraw in the final bout, thus settling for the silver medal in an event where she is a heavy favorite.

Because of the injury, she also missed joining the Asian Fencing Championship in China and the FIE World Championship in Italy, a qualifying meet for fencers as it awards points for next year's Paris Olympics.

The deadline for that is April 1, 2024.

A former University of the East Red Warriors high school star fencer under coach Rolando “Amat” Canlas Jr., she is the first 'homegrown' Filipino fencer to earn a full athletic scholarship in a Division 1 school in the US NCAA.