MAXINE ESTEBAN — UAAP FILE PHOTO

FILIPINO-born Ivorian Maxine Esteban returned from an eight-month injury hiatus by capturing the silver medal in the women’s individual foil category of the 23rd African Fencing Championships in Lagos, Nigeria recently.

“This medal means everything. It’s proof that patience and recovery pay off,” said the 24-year-old Olympian fencer.

Ms. Esteban was coming off a back injury that kept her from the sport for this long and this recent feat sets her back to possible bigger things to come.

She will be participating in the World Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia next month before flying back to the Philippines for a much-deserved homecoming.

Here, she will hold an outreach program for kids seeking to become a world-class fencer like her someday.

Rebisco Extreme is one of her backers in that camp.

The podium finish marked the return of Ms. Esteban after her Paris Olympics stint.

She was ranked 21st there before taking a much-needed breather to recuperate from that nagging back issues.

In Lagos, Ms. Esteban manhandled Algerian Malek Tantast, 15-3, in the round-of-16, edged Egyptians Jana Ehab, 15-12, and Malak Hamza in the quarterfinals and semis, respectively, to barge into the gold medal round.

There, Ms. Esteban ran into yet another rival from Egypt and fellow Olympian in Sara Amr Hossny and stumbled to a 15-8 defeat in settling for the silver. — Joey Villar