A memorable weekend for Arthur & Ethan
We had a good day's fencing day in the U13 men's foil category at the Cardiff Leon Paul Junior Series competition, with Arthur Eakin winning gold and Ethan Dakin winning bronze.
Arthur had a strong start in his first poule, winning all 5 fights, including 2 potentially tough ones, with a 5-1 against Henry Stirling of Sussex House and a 5-2 win over Luca Businaro of ZFW. Meanwhile, Ethan won 4 out of 5, losing to Edward Thompson of Dragon Fencing 4-5.
Arthur went into the second poule as top seed, winning 3 and losing 1. He beat Luca Businaro again, this time 4-5, but lost 1-5 to local favourite Ryan Zhang, of Russell Swords. Meanwhile Ethan won 3 matches and lost again to Edward Thompson, this time 3-5.
Arthur went into the DEs as 2nd seed and Ethan as 4th seed. In L16, Arthur beating Ioan Bertrand of Russell Swords 10-2; Ethan had a closer 8-6 win over Zachary Crabbe of Bath Swords. Ethan learnt well from his defeats in the poules, securing in L8 a 10-6 win over Edward Thompson. Meanwhile Arthur took a dominating 10-2 victory over Luca Businaro.
In the semi-finals, Ethan fought hard and was unlucky to lose 9-10 to Sebastian Beardmore-Esteban of ZFW, this year's number 1 in the LPJS U13 men's foil rankings. In the other semi-final, Arthur had also learnt from his defeat in the poules. He kept his nerve and played a better tactical game to overcome Ryan Zhang 8-7.
Arthur fought confidently in the final to overcome an excellent opponent in Sebastian Beardmore-Esteban, the final score being 10-8. This is Arthur's first gold medal in the LJPS competitions and is a fair reward for his hard work. It takes him up to 4th in the LPJS rankings.
“Hot but happy”
In other news, Ed Howlett is now 16th in the GB senior men's foil rankings, his highest ever.