Chichester Fencing Club
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Latest News
February 2010:
Last year's City of Chichester Open went so well we decided to do it all again in 2010!
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News
Viv Mills, BRITISH CHAMPION
Despite having only fenced for the past ten months and the fact that Viv had chosen the British Disabled Fencing Championships as her very first competition, she managed to claim not one, but three medals.
On the Saturday she was competing in the foil and epee events and after a series of extremely tough bouts against
much more experienced fencers, Viv managed to claim two silver medals.
Most people would have been thrilled at their own wonderful accomplishment, but not Viv; she was disappointed and
had hoped for gold!
On the Sunday, still feeling a bit tired after such a tough day previously, things started to go badly wrong in the sabre pool. Viv lost most of her fights and was seeded last, which is the end of the road for most fencers. However Viv is certainly not like most other people and this setback only made her more determined to succeed. She then stepped up several gears and gradually knocked out each fencer until she reached the final. Still not content with her two medals from the previous day, Viv gave the fight everything she had and won the final and the accompanying title of British Sabre Champion with great style and guts. Viv’s sabre coach Maciej Pulaczewski said, “Viv is the most determined fencer I have ever coached and her will to succeed is paramount”.
After the initial shock in the fencing world of a completely unranked outsider taking three medals in a British Championships, the Great Britain team bosses were quick to act, and within days Viv received a letter offering her a place in the Great Britain squad for the forthcoming World Cup, a truly wonderful achievement.
Head coach Sharon Blackman and all the club members are enormously proud of Viv’s achievements and she is a wonderfully inspiring example of what can be achieved given enough tenacity and drive.
COMMONWEALTH GOLD FOR THOMAS
Chichester Fencing Club are extremely proud to announce that Thomas Hendrie,
at only seventeen years of age, has won his first ever Junior Commonwealth Fencing Championships gold medal
whilst competing in Penang, Malaysia for the English Men’s Foil team.
Just to gain selection for the English team is a wonderful accomplishment and something to cherish,
but Thomas has lived up to and, indeed, exceeded everyone’s expectations by claiming the gold medal with his team-mates.
To see a young man from Chichester standing on the winner’s podium whilst the English flag is raised to
‘Land of Hope and Glory’ is a wonderful sight and something in which every Chichester resident can feel pride.
Erica Triumphs
Chichester Fencing Club’s Erica Brown triumphed in her very first sabre competition! Erica has only been fencing for a short time, so it was a very brave decision to enter the Sussex County Ladies’ Sabre Championships as her first competition. Despite being extremely nervous, Erica fenced superbly to win the gold medal, a wonderful achievement and very well deserved.
British Youth Championships Successes
Chichester Fencing Club fielded four very special fencers at the recent British Youth Championships held at R.A.F. Cosford.
Oscar O’Hara was the youngest at just 11 years old and wasn’t at all overawed by the enormity of the occasion. He fenced superbly all day, eventually leading him to a magnificent seventh position. This won Oscar his first British Championship medal and an automatic place in next year’s event. This is a wonderful result and undoubtedly the first of many to come.
In the U16 event both Peter Beadle and George Hendrie fenced superbly despite being the youngest competitors in the event (both 14 years old).
This was Peter’s first time qualifying for the BYCs and he fenced excellently.
He even managed to get the highest score from the eventual champion that anyone managed all day!
He finished in a fantastic 48th place.
George, as always, fenced brilliantly, finishing the day in seventh position.
This made him by far the youngest fencer to make it to the last eight.
It also gives him a place in next year’s event and another medal to add to his vast and very well-deserved collection.
This only left George’s elder brother Thomas to compete in the U18 event.
Now this is an extremely tough event under any circumstances, but this year was made ten times tougher for Thomas because just five weeks earlier he had snapped his collar bone in a horrendous skiing accident!
He had to undergo a serious operation, having a metal plate inserted to re-attach the bones.
Most people thought that Thomas shouldn’t even be competing so soon after his accident, but he was determined to try, even though he hadn’t been able to train properly and was still in considerable pain.
No-one would have predicted that under such circumstances that Thomas would have made the whole thing look so easy!
He cruised to the final without even breaking a sweat and won in such style that people were left dumbfounded at such an incredible feat.
Any cynics who had told Thomas he was foolish to even try were left eating humble pie as he carried away the trophy to place alongside his many others.
Congratulations on a wonderful achievement that was a real pleasure to watch.
More Gold for George
George Hendrie (14 years old) added to his already large tally of titles and gold medals at the U16 Sussex Foil Championships in Portslade.
Despite having to compete in an incredibly high-level field consisting of several other members of the Great Britain team,
George fenced fantastically in what can only be described as one of the best displays of foil ever witnessed in Sussex.
He won the final in consummate style only dropping two points in a victory that left the crowd breathless with admiration.
George has also recently returned from Paris where he competed in a huge international field of three-hundred-and-ninety fencers.
He finished in an astonishing eleventh place, leaving every French fencer trailing in his wake, another incredible achievement for one so young.
Other News
You can see our fencers with their trophies in our Photo Gallery.