Fernwood Sword Club
This weekend saw a double header in London of the U20 Eden Cup and the Leon Paul Satellite.
Ed and James were fencing as part of the U20 GB squad, in a competition of 173 top fencers from across the world, up to two years older than the boys. It was always going to be a tough competition and so it proved. James was suffering from a heavy cold and had a very tough poule, including Nick Itkin, who fences as part of the US senior squad. He took points off 5 out of the 6 other fencers but couldn't manage a win. Meanwhile, Ed had an almost equally tough poule, including Sidarth Kumbla, one of the top US juniors. He was uncharacteristically off the pace, perhaps with the pressure getting to him. He managed one win against Axel Zoons of the Netherlands and on form could have turned 3-5 losses to Federico Pistorio of Italy and Szymon Czartoryjski of Poland into wins. There was a tough 30% cut after the poule stage and along with 7 other GB fencers didn't manage to make the DE stage.
Sunday was a better day. Ed was fencing in his first ever senior international satellite competition, comprising 207 fencers. He was still not fencing to the level he is capable of but ground out the results. He started off with a 2-5 loss against Kamal Minott, 5th ranked amongst senior GB fencers. The highlight of Ed's day was a 5-2 win over French fencer Tom Voltz (who beat Minott 5-2) whilst Erwin Le Pechoux, French Olympic silver medallist (and one of Ed's favourite fencers) watched. Ed's other wins were 5-2 victories over Vince Beke of Hungary and Hugo Isaksson of Sweden, with losses against senior Canadian fencer Kamil Karbonowski and awkward left hander Martin Gvoth of Slovakia.
Ed very comfortably beat the 25% cut and faced Wouter Prommel of the Netherlands in L256. Only 8-6 up at the break, he refocused and went on to win 15-8. He then had to fence Nikita Vetrov of Russia, 22nd seed - two years older than Ed and a fencer who had won silver at the Cadet World Championships two years ago. Vetrov came out of the blocks fast with superb bladework, taking him to 8-1. However, Ed didn't give up and recovered ground to end the match at 9-15. Ed finished in 109th place, ahead of nearly two thirds of the British fencers who had entered and one of only 3 fencers of his age or younger to make L128. He also now has an international world senior ranking for the first time - 614th, which is a start!
