First International experience for Thame fencers

YOUNG Fencers from Thame Duellists Fencing Club had their first taste of international competition at the CEP Challenge tournament in Paris at the weekend, January 29.

Hal Seed

The well-established Paris event regularly attracts huge fields of junior fencers from all over the world and this year was no exception, with fencers from every continent present. What was new was the presence of Hal Seed and Darcy Herring Johnson of Thame Duellists Fencing Club in the Boys’ and Girls’ Under-14 events respectively, getting their first taste of international competition.

Darcy Herring Johnson

The competition, run over two demanding days of fencing, was intense and neither Hal nor Darcy was able to progress beyond the first day’s fencing, with Hal one of seven British fencers to be eliminated from the Boys’ under 14 event on the first day, and Darcy one of five British competitors to face the same fate in the Girls’ event. Both Hal, 12, and Darcy, 11, were younger than many of their opponents in the Under-14 event.

James Evans in action

However, both picked up a victory over the course of the day’s fencing, and both will have been buoyed by having qualified for the British Youth Championships at the Southern Regional qualifying event the previous weekend. At the qualifying tournament Hal matched his sixth place finish in the Boys’ Under-12 event last year with the same result in the Under-14s this year, while Darcy, who also fences for Oxford Fencing Club, finished seventh in the Girls’ Under-12s and booked her own place at the national championships, which take place at the beginning of May in Sheffield. Also representing Thame at the regional event was James Evans (14), who finished fourteenth in the Boy’s Under-16 event in his first competition.

There was better news from Paris for fencers from the region, with Heloise Hardie of Oxford being the best placed British fencer in the Girls’ under 17 event, finishing 44th after two gruelling days of competition.

SOURCE: Contributed