Double victory for Imperial Fencing’s 1st teams
Men's and women's first team achieve wins in first round of BUCS Fencing Championship
On Wednesday both the Imperial men’s and women’s 1st teams were in action in the first round of the BUCS Fencing Championship. The women’s team, who won the Championship two years ago, were in action at Ethos against Newcastle: the first weapon up was foil and although Imperial has been struggling this season in foil the team managed to get a one hit lead after a tense match in which the score was 45-44.
The second weapon up was épée and the Imperial women managed to extend their lead with a 45-37 victory, which meant that going into sabre, Imperial only needed to reach 36 hits in order to guarantee victory. In the event, doing what they do best, Imperial also won the sabre, thus sealing victory with a decisive 45-20 score line, giving an overall result of 135-101 . They have thus set up a last eight match against Edinburgh in Scotland, which is where the men’s 1st match took place.
Imperial men’s 1st, Champions last year, were away to St. Andrews in their first match of the Championship and after losing one fencer, due to “a delayed train”, arrived in the home of golf with about an hour to spare before starting the match. The first weapon up was foil and after a hard fought contest St. Andrews pulled ahead 45-38, a lead of seven. The second weapon up was sabre but even without Commonwealth double medallist Maiyuran Ratneswaren, Imperial won the sabre 45-41, leaving a target of winning the épée by at least three hits. The team fenced tactically and kept the score low throughout the épée and went into the last match with a two hit lead, needing one more hit to win. The final fencer, Filip Aniés, got the needed hit early on and then proceeded to get double hits, keeping the score low and running the clock down. With 4 seconds remaining the lead was still three and St. Andrews was forced to flèche from the line. Filip picked the fencer off and when St. Andrews repeated the move, hit him again with one second left, with the result that Imperial won the épée 40-35 and won overall by two points, 123-121. Next up for the men’s 1sts are the premier league south Champions, Cambridge.
