Tel: 07708508332
Email: info@chichester-fencing-club.org.uk
11th City of Chichester Open 2019
Saturday July 27th 2019
Sunday July 28th
2019
In
association with Chichester Fencing Club and Chichester
District Council
11th City of Chichester Open – Individual, Mixed Teams and
Wheelchair Competition
The City of Chichester Open took place over the weekend of 27-28 July at the Westgate Leisure Centre in Chichester.
Alongside the Open, we held a small Wheelchair event – Mixed Epee
on Saturday and Mixed Sabre on Sunday. This is the first time in
recent years that an Open has included a wheelchair event, with an
individual and team event, and we are delighted to report that is
was very successful. We had participants from Blackpool, Durham,
Northampton, Grimsby, Leeds, as well as London and Chichester. Many
of the fencers in the main competition had never seen wheelchair
fencing before, and were fascinated to see how fast and tough it
is.
60
men’s epeeists, 29 women’s epeeists, 31 men’s foilists and 16
women’s foilists took part in friendly but hard-fought matches in
the main event, with 6 fencers in the wheelchair epee and 4 in the
sabre.
After the Individual finals had been fenced, we held the Team
event. There were 15 Mixed Epee Teams, and 4 Mixed Foil Teams.
There were some close matches, and good fun was had by
all.
The
competitions were pulled together expertly by Alex Savin, and had
the benefit of live, online results throughout. Despite the intense
and fast-moving competition, it proceeded efficiently, and finished
in good time. (So much so that one of the older, less fit fencers
was heard to beg the referee for “more recovery time”.
We
were grateful for the expert support of Allstar-Uhlmann UK, with
Graham, Michelle, David and Andy as always working hard to keep
everything working perfectly. Medallists were also given vouchers
for Allstar-Uhlmann equipment, which is very generous.
Also indispensible to the event were the members of Chichester
Fencing Club, who, under the direction of Coach Sharon Blackman,
gave support to everyone, as well as providing refreshments on both
days for the referees and other officials. Special thanks to Andi
Elliott for her sandwich-making skills.
The
aim of the organisers of the City of Chichester Open has always
been to provide a friendly, well run competition in a great venue.
We are so pleased to have been able to add the Wheelchair event
this year, and hope to continue this in future years.
Report by Maggie Maynard.
11th City of Chicheter Open Videos