The Derry Open Fencing Tournament was held last weekend 20th and 21st November at the Magee Campus of the Ulster University in Londonderry. The women's foil event was held on the Saturday and 5 SU fencers took part: Alex Atkinson, Charlie Beimers, Izzy Evans, Angharad King and Victoria Morris. The men's foil event was on the Sunday and had 2 SU fencers competing: Keir Murray and Alexander Penny.
In the poule stage of the women’s foil event on the Saturday all 5 SU girls fenced well, Alex Atkinson putting in an especially strong performance to win 9 of her 10 fights, placing her as no.2 seed going into the knock-out stage. Alex, Victoria and Izzy all made it through to the quarter-finals, with Alex winning there to make it into the semis, where she lost a tough fight to finish 3rd. Victoria and Izzy were 5th and 6th, Angharad and Charlie 9th and 10th.
In the men’s foil on the Sunday Alexander Penny won 6 from 10 fights in the poule stage, while Keir won 3, placing them 9th and 13th in the seeding for the knock-out stage. Both had byes into the last 16 where Keir had a tough fight, going out to the no.4 seed to finish 13th, while Alexander beat the no.8 seed 15-13 in a close fight after being 11-13 down. Alexander then met and lost to the no.1 seed in the quarter-finals to finish a creditable 8th.
This was an excellent turn-out of SU fencers in the first senior N Ireland fencing competition since the arrival of Covid-19, with strong performances given by all seven.
The next event for SUFC fencers will be for U12s, U14s and U16s at Round 2 of the NI Junior Foil Series on 11th December. For those 16 and over the next event will be the Northern Ireland Open 29th and 30th January.
David White
SUFC Coach
24 Nov 2021
