Reporter: Quentin Russell

The Euro Cadet Epee season has had a number of good points so far but Roo’s achievement has added something really special, at one stage it looked like he was going to take on the whole Russian team by himself.

Roo, who fences from Millfield School, had a great day that he built steadily from a solid poule result of 4 wins from six landing him with a seeding for the eliminators of 44. He then defeated the Austrian Lach in the 128 before meeting American Shelanski in the L64 who he beat 15 :11. Beating another Austrian, Kremsleithner, in the L32 led Roo into his string of three Russians – Shikirun in the L16, Belianinov in the L8 and then Limarev, the last of whom finally ended Roo’s run after a very close fought match in the semi final.

The GB Cadet Epeeists were on their second expedition of the season, this time to Copenhagen to face the might of Europe enhanced by the presence of the top 20 cadets from each of the USA and Japan. The Boys’ tournament was attended by 182 athletes, the Girls by 122, and consisted of one round of poules with 20% eliminated after those, followed by a straight D/E series to the final.

This was the first combined event of the season with both the GB Boys and Girls at the same tournament, adding a social aspect to the waiting around that seemed to help with tension.

GB’s poule results were largely comfortable with the majority in the mid range of 3 & 4 victories, exceptions included the three that won their poules with 5 victories each – George Morris, James Russell and Eliza Woodhouse. Only 5 of our Cadets were lost to post poule eliminations.

The Direct Eliminations progressed with drop outs at each stage, those who made it into the points range of L64 and beyond were (final rank in brackets):

Boys – Roo Whelan (3), George Morris (21), James Russell (39), Ben Schneider (48), Andrew Hughes (53), Owen Jordan (58)

Girls – Eliza Woodhouse (21), Rebecca Wakefield (27), Danielle Lawson (29), Laura Sheffield (30)

Bethan Plant (55), Victoria Hide (60)

Things are looking good for our Cadet epeeists this season. In Bonn we had Matt Dickinson finish in the L8 and Devlin Stigant in the L16, Owen Jordan and George Morris also made the L64. In Grenoble, the first Nominated tournament for GB Girls, we had L64s from Rebecca Wakefield, Danielle Lawson and Charlotte Summers,

There is an ongoing enthusiasm in Cadet Epee to gain experience by competing overseas. Outside the nominated tournaments we have had athletes entering other European Cadet Circuit Tournaments in Gyor, Ankara where James Russell achieved a L16 and Klagenfurt.