Newsday Athlete of the Week is Great Neck South's Jun Ahn

After taking a year off from fencing for his school, Great Neck South’s Jun Ahn is back, with yet another gold medal in the collection.

Ahn is Newsday’s Athlete of the Week after winning the gold medal in the Brentwood Holiday Tournament, winning multiple bouts without being touched before winning, 15-1, in the final. The senior foil won the same tournament as a freshman years ago and now carries a 15-0 record this season with Great Neck South.

“Noticing patterns is a big part of fencing,” Ahn said. “A lot of people do things on instinct sometimes, because if they see something they react. And a reaction is instinct. So finding those patterns is a crucial part of how I fence and function.”

Yet in a sport where bouts can start and end quickly, Ahn said he emphasizes composure in duels. Fencing is all about anticipation and predicting reactions, and Ahn knows that sometimes it can be best to take a step back instead of a step forward.

“If there is anything going wrong in the bout, it’s a goal of mine to just stop for a second, reset, and try to fence without any touches at all for a couple minutes,” Ahn said. “Just to try and look at what my opponent is doing and what I can do to counteract that.”

Ahn decided to take a year off fencing with his school as a junior to focus on his education and outside fencing career where he competes as an individual and with the East Coast Fencing Club. Now back and already improving his 47-2 record he held as a freshman and sophomore, Ahn said he enjoyed and missed being a part of a larger group of fencers where wins are much more of a group effort.

“I always thought the team in general is a good experience for anyone,” Ahn said. “ . . . Being on a team and winning, you don’t get attached to your own victories as much. You get attached to your team’s victory, and when you cheer someone on it’s like, ‘I’m a part of this team. I can help this team be victorious and win.’ ”

“Jun is just the guy everyone looks up to,” coach Josh Baravarian said. “It doesn’t matter what weapon it is. He can go in and give advice, even if it’s just based on distance or tactics.”

There are still plenty of more competitions to come for Ahn, especially with the January North American Cup kicking off this month. But that’s OK. With proper technique and mental fortitude, Ahn and his coach know that the senior can go the distance against almost anyone who clips in across the mat.

“He’s just taken it to a new level,” Baravarian said. “Everything he does is so precise, so accurate, so calculated, that it’s really hard to find a flaw in his fencing.”