The Provincial Fencing Championship, which was held at the Athletic Centre over the weekend, saw such a display of talents that it proved that the sport can be mastered by students who can only afford to be part-time athletes.
The event, as is usual in fencing, was divided into the individual championships on Saturday and the team championships on Sunday. Saturday’s event saw challengers of various skills and achievements, including some from U of T, compete for the provincial bragging rights. Men and women of all ages gathered at Field House in the AC for the event and displayed an excellent spirit of sportsmanship.
Among those present was the head coach of the Chinese national fencing team.
The tournament started with a round-robin competition in the épée category for men and the sabre category for women. The 10-12 bouts happening at the same time made the event look like a track-and-field gathering, except it had that noble touch of a sword fight. The épée competition-in which the two challengers score points by using the point-only weapon to slightly hit each other-was as interesting as the sabre competition, which is fought with a “cutting and slashing” weapon.
The next stage of the tournament was the elimination round of 32 challengers. Once a challenger lost a bout, he or she was out of championship hunt. The 32 competitors in this stage were ranked according to their round-robin scores.
The elimination stage brought out concentration and patience in the fencers and also marked one of the most interesting periods of the tournament. At this stage, a third type of fencing was included. Fencers had slugged it out in the épée, sabre, and now in the foil category as well. Each had its own set of rule and scoring methods.
The first to grab five of nine points in the foil won, and the sabre and épée fights went as long as fifteen points. Each match ran in three-minute intervals.
The target area in the épée competition includes all parts of the body, the sabre only includes the upper body and the head, and the foil stands in between the two: it includes only the upper body. Foils allow one to poke and to slash, thus combining the motions of the épée and sabre weapons, respectively.
Fencing is also a sport that often brings out the aggressiveness in knowledgeable, gentle people, according to Blues head coach Ken Wood. This was evident throughout the tournament: opponents became hostile as soon as the referee called “allez.”
U of T athletes were able to capture medals in men’s and women’s foil and sabre, as well as medals in the foil and sabre team events. Paul Simms, Will Buchner, Jed Blackburn, Claire Midgley, and Catherine Migloire each won multiple medals at the championship.
A number of women were even able to achieve golden dreams last weekend. Catherine Migloire won gold in the women’s sabre and was a major contributor to the sabre team’s gold as well. Julie Tyne, Lena Quinto, and Laura MacDougall were also part of that team.
Meanwhile, the foursome of Leonie Soltay, Claire Midgley, Nicole Lawrence, and Julia Boma-Fischer were awarded the gold medal in the women’s team foil event. Other medal winners include Adrian Ho, David Schacter, Lev Blumenstein, Stirling MacLeod, Erik Martinez, Patrick Reed, and Kris Hutton.
