Louise Highton, Tom Skingle, Harry Whitwell and Philip Sellars made the journey to Carlisle and between them won three medals, making the University of York the most successful club at the competition.
After the preliminary pool stages in the Women’s Epee, Louise Highton was ranked second, having only dropped one fight. After storming through her elimination fights, she met the 1st seed in the final and lost out despite a tenacious performance.Harry Whitwell dominated the Men’s Foil from very early on. After the first round, having conceded very few hits and winning all of his matches, he seeded top of the competition. This winning streak continued and he was undefeated all day.
In the run up to the final, he only conceded eight hits from a possible 45. In the final, against a fencer ranked 68th in the national rankings, Whitwell was 12-1 up after the first three-minute period. After his performance throughout day, it caused little surprise to see him collect the gold medal.
From early on in the Men’s Epee, both Skingle and Sellars showed clearly why they make the team sheet every time. Skingle didn’t lose any matches in the first round, and was seeded 1st going into the direct eliminations. Sellars also had a successful first round and defeated the top fencers in his pool, but lost his last two fights narrowly, leaving him 5th seed.They both progressed into the quarter finals with ease. After an intense fight Sellars was narrowly beaten by the eventual silver medallist. Skingle conceded heavily in the first period of his quarter-final and entered the second period with the result a foregone conclusion. However, some brilliant competitive fencing demonstrated why he is the Yorkshire Epee Champion and he pulled the match back, turned it around, and won in style.
In October, the club will host the second University of York Fencing Open, a national event, open to anyone over the age of 13. Organised by Louise Highton and Harry Whitwell, last year this event had nearly 100 competitors, raising £800, and is planned to be even bigger this year, with over 100 competitors expected.
With more competitions over the coming few weeks, and a new fencing season starting in August, the Fencing Club at York hopes to see even more success.