Fencers return from Malta with most of their gold

The Imperial College Fencing Club summer tour saw them invade Malta, escaping from their exams, and starting the week with a bit of night swimming at the villa they had rented in Mellieha for the competition.

The next morning saw the men’s foil entrants, still a bit bleary eyed, find a cab and get to the morning’s fencing. Jack Patten of Imperial, thrown by the very different styles of fencing shown by some of the continental fencers, was knocked out in the quarter finals, leaving only two remaining, who unfortunately met each other in the semi final. Guillaume Joubert managed to pull the victory from Chris Gilliam, who ended coming in third. Guillaume faced Maltese fencer Pierre Bianchi, but was finally defeated, earning a silver medal and the respect of the opposition.

The men’s sabre event saw the same group going into the fastest of the three weapons. Again Jack was knocked out in his first direct elimination fight, but this time Chris and Guillaume almost effortlessly moved on to the finals against each other. After a back and forth fight Guillaume managed to shut down the wrist hits that Chris had used to get to the finals, earning him the gold that had been denied him earlier in the day, with Chris’ silver bringing the medal count to four after only two events.

The last event of the first day was a fun team sabre event where all of the fencers were mixed up to let fencers from different countries and at different skill levels to interact in a less competitive setting. Even fencers who rarely use a sabre picked one up for a bit of fun.

The next day began the women’s events, though rather than being the official Malta open, the two women fencers from Imperial were competing in the St. Paul’s Fencing Club Challenge, a new event run by the same fencing club which holds the open.

As the men were relegated to the sidelines, the women started on foil, which neither had a particular love of. Despite this, both moved through the initial stages of the competition with little trouble, adapting to the more unusual styles of fencing on display. Unfortunately, as with the men, they ended meeting in the semifinals, with Beth slowly out fencing Emily Bottle, to move on to the finals. In the final Beth met her match in German fencer Barbara Schormair, letting her bring home the silver medal, and Emily the bronze.

The epee event, being Beth’s least favorite weapon, saw her knocked out in the quarterfinals. Emily destroyed any competition she was up against, however, as this is her primary weapon. The finals saw her comprehensively defeat German epeeist Vanessa Klaas.

The team event of the day was epee. Even Jack and Guillaume picked them up – despite neither of them finding them the most interesting weapon, and Jack having never used one before at all!

During the week the fencers took some time to explore the country, whilst more fencers arrived for the rest of the week, and to do the second weekend competition. On Monday they headed out to try diving, which Chris and Beth decided to spend some more time on. They also enjoyed a meal in the capital Valletta with the competition fencers and their spouses. Tuesday was spent at St. Paul’s Fencing Club for some training with the Maltese and some of the other international fencers. They spent some time exploring Mdina, a fortified town in the hills, a relic and monument to the military history of Malta as a naval staging point for several wars. On Friday they took a couple of speedboats out to do some snorkelling and have a look at the nearby islands of Gozo and Comino.

The second weekend started with the men’s individual epee event. After a round of poules Chris had opened into a good position, while Jack’s inexperience in epee had left him in a mediocre position, and led to him being knocked out in the first round of direct elimination. Chris managed to make it through to the quarterfinals, defeated by British fencer Eddie Crofton, who was only defeated in the final by Pierre.

Then it was time to start the open for the women’s events. The first weapon was epee, and once again Emily found herself quickly leading the pack. She even defeated her mother in the semi-finals, to face off against fellow Imperial competitor Joan Chang in the finals. Joan’s style gave Emily pause in the first set, but was finally broken in the next set, winning Emily the gold, and Joan the silver.

The afternoon saw the team foil event. This had lots of entrants as most fencers start by learning foil and despite everyone trying hard to beat everyone else, the atmosphere was jovial. The competitors had become close over the week.

The last day of the competition opened with women’s foil. Our fencers put on an impressive display, with four of the top five fencers being from Imperial, Hannah Bryars beating out Emily in the semi-finals and Alice Mitchell in the final, for a nice gold, silver, bronze run, with Beth being just outside the medal zone in fifth.

The last individual event was women’s sabre, where Imperial did even better, the top five being entirely Imperial. Alice took fifth and Joan and Helen Pennington became bronze medallists. After some back and forth in the final Beth took silver and Hannah earned the gold. Another team sabre event was the last event of the day, and the competition, this time with mixed gender teams. A chance to say goodbye with some light hearted stabbing.