Henry Koh (Program Director & Head Coach, Founder, Blade Club Singapore)
Henry graduated from Stanford University with a double degree, a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Bachelor of Arts in Economics. He has a Fencing Coaching Diploma from FIE, the international Fencing body that oversees the Olympic Sport. Having coached for 20+ years and a 2x Olympic Coach, he has helped students of all ages win hundreds of medals across all weapon disciplines.
He was previously the top ranked fencer in Singapore (Foil) for many years, and double Bronze medalist at the SEA Games 2003. He is currently a National Partner Coach and SpexScholar coach, and coaches the Singapore National Epee Team as well as numerous athletes in the Singapore National Team across the three weapon disciplines.
His students include some of the top athletes in the country, including a member of the Bronze medal winning Women’s Foil team at the Asian Games 2018, Bronze medal at the Asian Fencing Championships 2025, the first gold medalist in the Women’s Epee event at the 2019 SEA Games for Singapore in 30 yers, and the first ever Singapore qualifier in Women’s Epee to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Henry is also the coach that has helped Singapore win the most number of SEA Games Epee Gold medals in its history.
Simon Senft (Coach, Blade Club Singapore)
Simon is from Germany and has a Diploma in Fencing Coaching from the German Fencing Federation and a Diploma in Physiotherapy. He was the 2003 European Champion (Individual Men’s Foil) and part of the 2004 German Olympic Games (Athens) Fencing Team. He has won multiple medals in the European and World Championships.
He was National Foil Coach of Singapore 2013-2016, during which he helped Singapore win medals at Asian level and 3 Gold medals at SEA Games 2015 (Singapore). He is currently a National Partner Coach in Foil and a SpexScholar Coach. He coaches many of the top Foilists in Singapore, including athletes who won Golds and other medals at SEA Games 2019, 2021, and 2023. He was the first coach to help earn the both the Men’s and Women’s Foil Individual Golds for Singapore, and also the coach that has helped Singapore win the most number of SEA Games Foil Gold medals over the years.
Juliana Seow (General Manager and Coach, Blade Club Singapore)
Juliana has a Masters of Business, and Bachelor of Engineering (NUS). She was previously one of the Team Singapore Women Sabreurs, and has won multiple team golds and medals at the National Championships. She has been coaching for over 18 years, and earned an FIE Diploma in Coaching.
Juliana is extremely active as a volunteer in Singapore sports. She was the President of Fencing Singapore, the governing body of Fencing in Singapore from 2013 to 2024, helping to lead Singapore to historic results at the South East Asian and Asian levels, while also overseeing the qualification of Olympians at Tokyo and Paris. She also served as Vice-President of the Singapore National Olympic Council. In 2023, she received the Singapore Public Service Medal for her contributions.
Zhao Zhi Zhong (Coach, Blade Club Singapore)
Coach Zhao is a Singapore PR. He has been coaching in Singapore for more than 3 decades, much of it spent as National Epee Coach. Prior to coaching in Singapore, he was one of the highly regarded coaches of China’s provincial teams.
In his tenure as the longest serving National Fencing coach in Singapore history, he developed numerous fencing talents, past and present, including the top Epee Fencer, Asian Games medalist, and Blade Club Coach Lim Wei Wen. He was responsible for many of Singapore’s top athletes from the 1990s to 2000s. His athletes have won numerous medals across all age groups and in competitions local and international, including numerous SEA and Asian medals. He currently coaches at Raffles Institution as well as our young aspiring club athletes.
Nontapat Panchan (Head Coach, Blade Club Thailand)
Non is from Thailand and has a Bachelor in Economics from Pennsylvania State University. He was the top Men Foilist in South East Asia for many years, having won numerous individual and team titles in the SEA Games since 2001. He qualified for the Olympics in Beijing 2008 (ranked 33rd in the world during the 2007-2008 season) and was the Asian Fencing Championship Silver Medalist (Individual). He was also NCAA champion twice.
He is founder and head coach at Blade Club Thailand and the Foil program in Thailand. His students are some of the top foilists in Malaysia and Thailand, including the bronze in the Men’s Foil event at SEA Games 2017, and gold and silver at SEA Games 2019.
Nurali Nasirov (Coach, Blade Club Xi’an, China)
Nurali has been a Sabre coach for over 15 years, training aspiring Uzbek athletes. He was a Senior Sabre trainer for the Uzbekistan National team and helped train some of the top Cadet and Junior athletes in the country.
Some of his athletes that he helped to train in the past have achieved exceptional results on the world stage, including Individual Gold at the Cadet Sabre World Championships (2022), the Silver at the Junior Sabre World Championships (2021), and Bronze at the Junior Sabre World Championships (2022), Gold at the Asian Fencing Championshps (2023), and numerous other medals. He also helped to train the athlete who represented Uzbekistan in Women’s Sabre for the Tokyo Olympic Games. Nurali now brings his coaching talents to young athletes in Xi’an.
