Ed Howlett represents GB at the Junior World Cup
This weekend Ed Howlett was fencing for GB U20s in a Junior World Cup in Aix en Provence. It was another strong competition, with most of the world's top fencers - 182 from all 5 continents. Ed was seeded 5th out of 7 fencers in his poule. He saw off Spaniard, Arnau Gumau, 5-1 in his first fight. He went 3-0 up against Anton Ziegon, who is a year older and has fenced for the German senior team. Ziegon came back and at 4-4, Ed and the GB coach thought he had got the winning hit, having clearly started his attack first, but the non-FIE standard referee (who was causing consternation amongst various nations) called it the other way. Ed then lost to top Russian (also a year older), Bogdan Barmakov. He then had a pleasing 5-2 win against Svante Dahlin (having gone 4-0 up and finishing with a fleche), another fencer who is a year older and who regularly fences for Sweden in senior World Cups. Ed had a frustrating loss against French fencer Matthys Jabouille. They last fenced in a team competition near Aix as cadets, when Ed edged the fight. Ed went 2-4 down and, again, he and the GB coach thought the next hit was Ed's, but it was called against him, notwithstanding that Jaboulle was looking for Ed's blade which would have made it Ed's priority . His final poule fight was a stunner, against top Italian, Alessio Di Tommaso. Ed emulated senior world number 2, Richard Kruse, with whom Ed is lucky enough to spar occasionally, by getting 3 impressive countertime hits. Ed made it 4-2 with 30 seconds to go. Di Tommaso showed his expertise by getting two hits to send the match into a minute's priority time. Di Tommaso kept attacking, beating Ed's blade. Ed was on the back line and had his foil knocked out of his hand. The referee didn't call halt (as he should have done). The Italian didn't attack; Ed managed to grab his foil and the two fencers moved in and out - almost as if it were choreographed. Ed seized the moment, attacked and hit, with Di Tommaso only able to counter - a super 5-4 win.
That left Ed with V3D3 - frustrating because it should have been V4D2 and could have been V5-D1. That made a big difference to the DE seeding. Ed had a bye to L128 and faced world junior ranked number 6 (and senior world ranked number 106), Argentinian, Augusto Antonio Servello - another fencer a year older than Ed. This would be a tough one. Ed went 4-8 down and brought it back to 8-8. Ed got some really nice hits and had some decent tactics. He did have some confidence issues but also fenced with some big steps, which perhaps made the difference. He received a number of compliments on the standard of his fencing but was frustrated to lose 12-15. Servello went on to win his L64 fight 15-2 and only lost to the silver medallist 14-15.
Ed is continuing to make steady progress internationally, earning ranking points, continuing to finish above his initial seeding and increasingly being more likely to be on the cusp of a big win. He finished in 105th place, 5th of the 12 GB fencers - only 2 of whom finished a level above Ed.
Meanwhile , Arthur Eakin was striking out in the Newham Challenge in Docklands, London. This was an U14 competition, so Arthur was one of the younger fencers (being an U13) and was full of very strong fencers. He had a very tough first poule, winning 2 fights and losing 3. Amongst his losses were to the eventual winner of the competition. He was very pleased to beat Zed Law of Cobham 5-2 - he'd never beaten him before. His second poule resulted in 3 wins and 2 losses; 2 of these were 5-1 and 5-2. The third was a very pleasing 5-4 win in priority time over Tomi Fric of ZFW (Ed's club in London). Tomi had beaten Arthur 5-0 in the first poule, so this was a super turnaround. Arthur had been very defensive in the main part of the match and won the match in the priority minute with a surprising, lightning quick attack.
Arthur was ranked 21st after the poules. He had a tough fight against Xavier Wallin of Allez Fencing in London - Wallin is a year older and an experienced fencer, which told, as Arthur went out 5-15 - in his first ever competitive fight to 15 (he has fenced fights to 10 points, so far). The competition was great experience for Arthur and will stand him in good stead when he has his first LPJS competition of the season.