SOUTH EAST REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS FEBRUARY 2023
Sunday 5th February 2023 saw 3 Gravesham Fencing Juniors compete at the Triangle, Burgess Hill, Crawley, in the South East Regional Championships (and BYC Qualifiers). Jake drew the short straw, on the day, with an 8am sign in, for the boys U14 epee. He fought well in a very difficult poule, with only non-score against the eventual runner up. Half of his pool finished in the top 10 overall (out of 31 fencers), with six of the eight competitors finishing in the top half of all fencers – not the dream start to your day! With the other poules much more evenly matched and the indicators therefore benefitting those fencers, Jake found himself up against the number three seed for the first stage of knockouts. Jake held his nerve well, scoring four points against a fierce and, much higher seeded competitor, with the 15-4 loss not giving a true indication of how well Jake fenced on the day.
Next up, with a much more respectable 10.30am sign in was Sofia, in the girls U16 epee. A good field of 24 competitors did not faze Sofia. A good poule showing saw her win 3 of her 5 matches, with even the losses amassing three hits each, giving her a good indicator and seven seeding for the tableau. A bye in the first tableau round, saw her facing the 10th seed in the quarter-final. Unfortunately, the lengthy wait between the poules, the bye and the quarter-final, saw Sofia slightly behind her opponent, who had not suffered the same fate and seemed more match ready, having fought continuously through each round. The 15-4 loss in the quarter-final, did not do justice to how close the match actually was. The final result saw Sofia finishing in 11thplace overall – and qualifying for the BYC’s in April/May2023.
The final competitor was Claudia in the girls U14 epee competition. With only 9 competitors and eight BYC places up for grabs, all Claudia needed to do was beat one of her rivals to qualify for the Bank Holiday Mayday BYC competition. Two wins and only one non scoring loss in the poules was enough to see Claudia hit the knockout stage as the 4th seed and get herself a bye to the quarter-finals. A tougher match in the quarter-final, against the 5th seed, saw Claudia manage to claw away a two point lead. Multiple double hits later and Claudia had managed to secure a semi-final place with a 15-13 win. The semi-final match was against the number one seed, who had shown her prominence throughout the competition so far. Claudia managed to score four points in the match, but was overcome by her opponent’s superiority on this occasion. However, her third place trophy was enough to secure her a place at the BYC at the EIS at Sheffield, along with Sofia, on the May Bank Holiday weekend.
Well done to all three competitors and good luck to the girls in Sheffield.