Warwick Epee 2024
A young fencer from Headington Rye Oxford is celebrating a silver medal in a prestigious fencing contest.
Hattie, Year 9, competed against fencers from 10 different schools and clubs in the U14 event in the Warwick Epee at Warwick School en route to her medal-winning performance.
The annual event has a unique format for junior fencers. It is unique in that every position is competed for using a repechage system. This guarantees that each participant gets the maximum amount of fencing during the day – rather than being knocked out early as would happen with traditional direct elimination rounds.
The system allows for a great day of fencing but it is also very testing the fencers both physically and psychologically as they have plenty of 15 hit matches to get through! It is nonetheless, tremendous training and practice for other bigger events.
This is a very well run and friendly event which both fencers and their families really enjoy. Headington Rye Oxford have had quite a lot of success at this event in the past and would normally send quite a few fencers but a date change this year meant that only Hattie was available of the epeeists.
After her tough opening poule round, Hattie was 17th overall, but she then began to claw her way up through the rankings with a good 15-7 win against the 16th seed and an even better 12 -10 close run win in time against the 9th seed. She won her next round 12-10, followed by an extremely close 12-11 victory. Finally, Hattie was closely defeated by the girl who had been number 1 seed throughout.
Fencing Coach Mrs Jenny Douglas said: “This was a very well-considered performance by Hattie and a well-deserved silver medal! Bravo!”
