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2007 Results and Reports |
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AFF Circuit #1 Tournament |
| What: | 2007 AFF Circuit #1 Tournament, Adelaide - been there, done that, came back with the t-shirt |
| When: | 21-23 April 2007 |
| Where: | Scotch College, Torrens, South Australia |
Results:
| Official results are still pending release by AFF. I didn't get to stay for the sabre. | |
| Men's Open Epee, 52 fencers - Seamus Robinson #1 (Me #45) | |
| Women's Open Foil, 33 fencers - Jenny Bonney-Millet (QLD) #1 | |
| Veteran Men's Foil, 19 fencers - Dr Zoltan Vilagosh (VIC) #1 (Me #10) | |
| Veteran Women's Epee, 6 fencers - tba #1 (Julie Seggie [NSW] #3) | |
| Men's Open Foil, 57 fencers - results tba, (Me about #47) | |
| Veteran Men's Epee, about 20 fencers - Ian Davidson (SA) #1 (results tba, Me about #15), | |
| Sabre - tba |
Highlights:
| SA Fencing hospitality. Great hosts - a very friendly and sociable group of fencers, who can see both the fun and sport in fencing, much like us Canberrans! | |
| Our favourite Commonwealth Champion Julie Seggie was there, storming her opponents on the piste. | |
| Seamus Robinson (defending epee champion and Aust #1) just makes it look so easy. | |
| Richard Purdie (NSW) was the epitomy of fitness and stamina in competing in open/vet events for epee/foil, and making the finals in open/vets. | |
| Haluk Yeter seemed to be a little short in his lunging attacks but his quick hand movements meant that he could literally put up an impenetrable wall of steel, when pushed to defend, to get to the finals. | |
| Iain Davidson (SA) - Veteran's epee winner - is renowned for his special training technique with tennis balls. His club members line up against him and bowl tennis balls at him - he returns the balls by thrusting at them with his epee, rarely missing a return! His brother is also an Olympian. | |
| Significant fencers that I could recognise or fought included Rob de Jongh, Volker Hrovat, Richard Purdie, Alistair Sutherland, Ian Davidson, Ross Austen, William Dolley, Shane Pay (Pres SA Fencing) Seamus Robinson, Peter Osvarth, Ben Pedden (Pres WAFA), Joe Slowiaczek, Hugh Cotman, Zoltan Vilagosh. | |
| The flicks and "lift the blade around the back of your head to hit your close-in opponent from your non-sword arm side" shot (as normally seen proficiently performed by the likes of Nigel, George and Doug) were commonplace! | |
| Everyone normally trains to hone their skills in the core attacks/defences and then work on developing their niches abilities into a special bag of tricks. I had to use my tricks just to survive the pre-bout warm-ups against random opponents. | |
| If your opponent has a Polish name, expect to crash and burn quickly! Marek Jamrozy (WA) just demolished my foil pool with 5-0 scores. He was amazing and seemed to move at light speed! The West Aussies were observed to have put in a surge effort in training up for AFF#1, before their coach moves interstate... | |
| WA's top state level coach is defecting to follow his wife and live permanently in the ACT (Heads up!) | |
| Hugh Cotman is reknowned for his explosive foil lunge attack, which popped a knee cap on this occasion. | |
| Every sports tournament seems to have to have a token bad guy. For AFF#1 it was the Blue Smurf twins from VIC (i.e. epeeist brothers wearing illegal blue coloured jacket/breeches). Everyone seemed to unanimously enjoy not liking them. They are top fencers, but trained to win at all cost, by their hard driving father/coach. They all disappeared pretty quickly when they were eliminated - there was no jeering, just the silent treatment from the crowd. | |
| There is nothing like elitism to make it hard on the presiding judges. The judges did well to manage a lot of criticisms from fencers in the finals and seemed quite tolerant. Plenty of yellow cards were issued for failed weapons checks, corps-a-corps, and talking back to the referee! | |
| Gourmet canteen food (croissants, fruit, etc) managed by a school teacher who gave me a serve on nutrition and diet because I said something about a sausage sizzle. | |
| Injuries observed: 1 x penetrated calf muscle (by an unbroken epee!), 1 x dislocated kneecap; 1 x rolled ankle; 1 x minor head trauma from a fall on the piste (needing 4 stitches). |
Lessons Learned:
| You'll never know, unless you give it a go. Once done, you'll want to do it again... | |
| When you are in the zone, the spirit of the competition and the adrenalin, makes you perform at %110. Have to remember this for the extra warm-ups/warm-downs that are needed. | |
| The commonly observed weapon failure seemed to be the main spring in the epee tip - resulting in yellow cards on weapon checks at the starts. Need to open the tip and stretch the main spring once or twice during competition events, depending on the number of bouts and heavy hits. | |
|
There seem to be three kinds of fencers: a. Those who fence for fun, doing the best they can. b. Those who are trained to win, at all costs (old WWII Stalinist approach!) c. Those who are trained and use their talents to be winners both on and off the piste. |
|
| The top fencers don't mix weapons at the open level of competition. | |
| Four competitions at this level can be physically punishing. Hence, my feet are shredded/blistered, knees ache, wrist hurts, and bruised body looks like it's been peppered by machine gun fire. Would I do it again - ABSOLUTELY! |
Pictures:
[1] - Me and Seamus (defending Tournament Champion), after he conceded two glorious points to me in the pools (his 5-2 win). I didn't even make him sweat, thus he has to rug up to keep warm!
[2] - Eight pistes, being worked full time from 9 to 6 pm.
[3] - "It's just a jump to the left..." - Doing the Time Warp fleche at light speed.
[4] - One of the Smurfs; Richard Purdie in background.
[5] - A peak of piste activity.
[6] - Julie Seggie does battle; bright pink helmet shines out from adjoining piste.
[7] - Youthful foilists, flicking to the death.
:-)
Spanna
ACTFA Open Epee
18 March 2007
| What: | ACTFA Men's Open Epee; Women's Open Epee |
| When: | Saturday, 18 March 2007 |
| Where: | Gymnasium at St Edmunds School, Narrabundah |
Highlights:
| Participating in the best ever competition organised by ACTFA (with mega-congratulations to Gordon, Hans, and supporters). | |
| 26 top fencers, all arriving to represent clubs from Wagga Wagga, Penrith, Sydney, Southern Highlands and ACT for the Open Epee!! | |
| Being privileged to see some of hottest fencing there has ever been in Canberra. | |
| Seeing the sight of my comfortable bed, at the end of it, knowing full well that us Canberrans have a public holiday tomorrow! | |
| DT: Gordon Christie. |
Summary:
| It was huge. Must do it again next year, and win the medals back. | |
| Watch the WIN Sports News on Monday; Lookout for the Canberra Times on Monday. |
ACTFA Results and ANUFC Places:
| 1st | - R. Cahan |
| 2nd | - A. Sutherland |
| 3rd | - R. Kopiec |
| 4 | - Sandy |
| 6 | - Nigel |
| 7 | - Chris |
| 8 | - Bourke |
| 12 | - Spanna |
| 17 | - Myles |
| 24 | - Iain |
Pictures:
[1] - Rene vs Sandy
[2] - Nigel vs Roc
[3] - Nigel vs Roc
[4] - Medals and grinners
[5] - Rene vs ??
:-)
Spanna
ACTFA Open Foil
17 March 2007
| What: | ACTFA Men's Open Foil; Women's Open Foil; Under 20's Foil; Novices Foil |
| When: | Saturday, 17 March 2007 |
| Where: | Gymnasium at St Edmunds School, Narrabundah |
Highlights:
| Participating in the best ever competition organised by ACTFA (with mega-congratulations to Gordon, Hans, and supporters). | |
| 24 top fencers, all arriving to represent clubs from Wagga Wagga, Penrith, Sydney, Southern Highlands and ACT for the Open Foil Comp!! | |
| Having the opportunity to continue to check the progress of some of Canberra's finest young fencers, as they grow, develop and establish an ever greater presence at the comps. | |
| Seeing six full metal pistes with remote controlled electronic scoring systems setup across the competition floor (by courtesy of our NSW friends), and still there weren't enough for the number of competitors. | |
| Sausage sizzle sambos cooked by Pam Zopf. | |
| Seeing some of the best and toughest foil bouts that have ever been hosted in Canberra by ACTFA. | |
| Seeing ACT collect a medal!! Congratulations to Nigel N. | |
| Seeing the sight of my comfortable bed, at the end of it, in preparation for epee tomorrow! | |
| DT: Gordon Christie. |
Summary:
| They came, we saw, they conquered. | |
| Prepare for epee, tomorrow. | |
| Watch the WIN Sports News on Monday; Lookout for the Canberra Times on Monday. |
ACT Results:
| Silver, Men's Open Foil | - Nigel N. | |
| Novice Foil | - tba | |
| Under 20's Foil | - tba |
Pictures - if you weren't there, here is a sample of what you missed:
[1] - Hugh Cotman vigorously points out to our Nigel N the sauce stain from the sausage sizzle.
[2] - A floor full of fighting foilists.
[3] - Medals and winning grins.
[4] - Foilists spending a day "out on the piste."
:-)
Spanna
Marconi Competition
11 March 2007
| What: | Marconi Competition - Open Women's Epee, Open Men's Epee, Veteran Men's Epee |
| When: | Sunday, 11 March 2007 |
| Where: | The Marconi Club in Sydney's Western Suburbs |
Highlights:
| 30 guys with swords storming through the main entrance of the second biggest/richest poker machine sports club in Western Sydney. | |
| Discovering that Nigel N. has an epee wielding sister! | |
| Sarah Osvarth; Roc Cahan; Rob De Jongh, Volker Hrovat. | |
| A slick lunch prepared by the club chefs, and served in the bistro dining area, without anyone minding me wearing my sweaty whites! | |
| DT: Mrs & Mr Dupre. |
Summary:
Iain (Club President) and I joined with Gordon, Hans and Tibault to represent ACT at the annual Marconi Competition, in Sydney. The competition is held at the Marconi Club in Sydney's Western Suburbs, just a short hop off the M7 motorway, and is fast growing as a major sporting venue for field sports such as soccer.
The Marconi Club hosted the NSW and ACT fencers in one of the main function rooms, complete with bling-bling splendour and disco balls. The pistes were laid down upon comfy carpets, and ice-chilled water was served at the bar, for us! What a great deal it was. The competition was another success and is only getter bigger each year. Must do it again next year.
ACT Results:
| Bronze, A Final, Men's Open Epee | - Tibault | |
| Silver, B Final, Men's Open Epee | - President Iain B. | |
| Bronze, Men's Veteran's Epee | - Hans D. | |
| Bronze, Men's Veteran's Epee | - Spanna |
Some pictures of the day:
[1] - Iain puts in a straight attack.
[2] - "Bending like reed in the wind," to beat your opponent.
[3] - Medal presentations for Men's/Women's Open Epee.
[4] - Yours Truly versus Rob De "Juggernaut."
:-)
Spanna
Tex Clark Competition
11 February 2007
| What: | Tex Clark 2007 Competition and Veteran's Open (age 40+, with handicap scoring) |
| When: | Sunday, 11 February 2007 |
| Where: | Ann Clarke State Netball Centre, Lidcombe |
Highlights:
| Watching Slowiaczek, Cahan ("The Roc") and Dooley!! Whoa. | |
| Tuko Maio presented the medals. | |
| Scoring points but losing, with dignity, to Kiel, Purdie. | |
| Spookng the field by appearing as an unknown, and defeating NSW regular identities in the pools and early Des (A and then B fields). | |
| Walking away with a bronze medal from the Men's epee B finals. | |
| Playing on aluminium pistes. |
Summary:
What a hoot! ACT Fencing has made its mark on the 2007 NSW Fencing scoresheets. Standby for an influx of NSWelshpersons on the Canberra Day long weekend competition days. Word is spreading far afield, both throughout the Sydney Clubs and the country clubs from South Coast to Central Coast.
Quite a few are interested for the novelty of coming to Canberra, others are definitely coming for the fencing points and honours. Expect a busy weekend!
I know how many ACT fencers are better than me, so ACT should be in good standing to do well at the combined ACT/NSW!
Results:
| Ranking | Name | Club |
| 1 | SLOWIACZEK, Joe | UTS |
| 2 | DOWNES, John | S/H |
| 3= | DOOLEY, Lawrence | D/E |
| 3= | DE JONGH, Robert | S/H |
| 5 | KIEL, Roland | MU |
| 6 | CAHAN, Roc | UTS |
| 7 | PURDIE, Richard | MU |
| 8 | FAIRWEATHER, Duncan | UTS |
| B1/9 | SUTHERLAND, Alistair | MU |
| B2/10 | DURANT, Kelly | UTS |
| B3=/11 | HROVAT, Volker | C/C |
| B3=/11 | SPENCER, Michael | ACT |
| B5/13 | DETERING, Glen | MU |
| B6/14 | MONTROSE, Tim | D/E |
| B7/15 | DAVIES, Nicholas | S/H |
| B8/16 | ESPEDIDO, Bjorn | D/E |
| 17 | GRAVES, Russell | PAF |
| 18 | MANSFIELD, Luke | S/H |
| 19 | BYRNE, Padraig | USyd |
| 20 | ALCHIN, Daniel | S/H |
| 21 | ALCHIN, Mike | S/H |
| 22 | FOURACRE, Mike | UTS |
| 23 | ANDREWS, David | UTS |
| 24 | WANG, Eddie | Marc |
| 25 | HUNTER, Norman | Marc |
Some pictures of the day: [1] [2] [3]
Cheers,
Spanna