Success for British Teams in London & Klagenfurt

A fantastic weekend for British fencers at Cadet level concluded on Sunday with a haul of three team medals on the EFC Circuit.

GLL Camden International Sabre

Following on from the success of Ian Ren and Julian Richards II in the individual event on Saturday, Great Britain won the men’s team gold medal and women’s team bronze on Sunday.

There were three British teams in the field of sixteen in the men’s event.  Luke Haynes, Ian Ren and Julian Richards II lined up for GBR A and beat GBR C 45-29, USA 2 45-36 and Belgium 45-35 to line up a gold medal match with Japan.  A thrilling contest followed which GBR A edged 45-44 to claim top spot on the podium.

Speaking on behalf of the team, the coach said, “The final wasn’t easy as Japan are a difficult team to beat.  However we stuck together and worked hard for our victory.”

Canada beat Belgium to secure the bronze medal as GBR B (Louis Bedford, Samuel Boorne and Kajetan McDonnell) finished sixth and GBR C (Darcy Holdsworth, Anuj Mathur and Rohan Smith) fifteenth.

In the women’s event, Great Britain fielded four teams in the field of fourteen.  GBR A lined up with Maia Fashokun, Elsie Llewellyn, Ellen Robbins Wilkinson and Lumeng Yang.  They beat GBR D 45-18 and the USA 45-49 before losing their semi-final 45-40 to the EU team.  This meant that they faced Belgium in the bronze medal match, which they won 45-38.  After the medal ceremony, the coach said, “Great experience!  Thanks to GLL for making a really well run competition and venue.  It’s good to know we have a really strong team and today will help us to prepare for the future European tournaments.”

Bulgaria claimed the gold medal by beating the EU team in the final whilst GBR C (Bea Abram-Moore, Aneesah Khan and Hannah O’Reilly) took sixth place, GBR B (Erin Corcoran, Catriona Thomson and Molly Wood) finished eleventh and GBR D (Catriona Stewart, Amy Westwell and Sophia Yang) ended up fourteenth.

Klagenfurt Men’s Epee Team – EFC Circuit

Great Britain fielded three teams in this event amongst a field of thirty-eight.  GBR A (Benjamin Andrews, Jacob Foulsham, Stephen MacPherson and Joshua Willcox), ranked ninth had a bye through the round of 64 and then beat Slovakia 45-23, defeated Israel B 45-34 and Ukraine B 45-42 before losing their semi-final 45-43 to USA B.  They edged an extremely tight third place play-off against USA D 42-41 to claim the bronze medal. 

Switzerland beat USA B 45-40 to win the event as GBR B (Myles Ashforth, Ethan Kew, Toby May and Luke Toogood) finished twenty-second and GBR C (Dylan Ballard, Nicholas Grimshaw, Jacob Mitchell and Edward Scott Payne) ended up twenty-seventh.