The Bedford Open Epee Tournament 11th October 2015 Bedford Fencing Club Bedford Fencing Club

World Championships Medal

Tuesday, 25th October 2016

Two club fencers and one of our visitors took to the World stage in October at the Veterans World Championships held in Stralsund Germany.

 

Two Club fencers and one of our visitors took to the World stage to represent Great Britain in October at the Veterans World Championships held in Germany. 

Caroline Clancy, Silvia Brown and Jon Nottingham travelled to Stralsund which is located in the north-eastern part of Germany.  Silvia travelled with Bedford Fencing Club head coach, Prof. Jonathan Katz.

The Hanseatic City of Stralsund  is known as the gateway to Ruegen, the largest island in Germany.   It was not an easy journey!

Before fencing, first the fencers had had to qualify!  This was done earlier in the year in the Veterans’ National and Age Group Championships.

Caroline and Silvia fenced at the same time but in different halls and Prof. Katz was on his toes trying to support both of them.  Caroline was seeded 24th after her first round and came up against 9th seed Jose Padura from Spain in her first direct elimination.  Caroline lost  10-6 – a very good result since Padura went on to take the Silver Medal.

Silvia meanwhile was fencing at her best and won 4 out of 5 fights in the first poule gaining a 4th seeding.  She had a bye into the last 16 where she beat Margit Budde from Germany 10/3 only to lose to fellow Brit, Jenny Morris who went on to win a Bronze medal.  Silvia took 5th place just missing a medal.

 Next day, Silvia fenced in the GB Women’s Sabre Team.  There was a small field of five Women’s Sabre teams but the competition was tough and fierce.  In the seeding poule unique, they beat the USA 30-28 and Japan 30-26 but lost 30-16 to Germany and 30-24 to France, leaving them ranked third.  They then faced a bronze play off match against Japan, winning 30-19 to secure the medal.

Caroline, Silvia and the Women’s Sabre Team GB were very grateful to have received enormous support through warm-ups, advice and encouragement from Prof. Katz throughout several days of intense competition.

Jon Nottingham fenced in the 50+ (Cat. A) Epee in a huge field of 84 fencers.  In this anything can happen!  Winning 4 and losing 2 fights in the first poule he was seeded 35th.  Jon beat the 30th seed from Sweden, only to lose to third seed Marek Stepien from USA 10/8 in a close and hard fought match.  He was pleased with his 28th place as it was a great improvement on his last result, and also because he was the top British fencer in his Age Group.

http://www.fencingworldwide.com/en/competition/11696-15/tournament/​  Full results are to be found here .