Summer Nationals, Day Five: Division Two Women's Foil

My final event at Nationals was division 2 (C and under) women's foil. I had a low seed (124 out of 129), and, as my coach put it, could only go up. My first bout was against Thomas, and it started out really well. I led 3-0, all on attacks into prep. But then I started to counter attack with out time, and she hit me on parry-riposte once, too. When the score was tied at 3, the referees realized that my guard was non-conforming. The largest possible size is 120 mm, and my guards were about 122.5 mm. I was yellow carded for that weapon, and as the other foil had the same size guard, I was given a red card. The score was 4-3. The big problem was that, although I was allowed a "reasonable amount of time" to find other weapons, the ones I had had been confiscated (as is the protocol) so we couldn't go and get them fixed. After waiting for about a minute, one of the other girls in my pool offered to loan me one of her foils- and we got to the fencing again. I was able keep going for about a minute, but as Thomas drove me toward my end of the strip, I sort of crumpled and counterattacked- into her simple attack. I of course lost the bout, 3-5.

Whitt was my next opponent. I was able to get three attacks into prep, and we traded points for a while. Sometimes she hit on attack, other times on parry-riposte. She got her fourth touch when I countered without time. After that, I wanted to keep the score low, not willing to take the risk of her hitting me. I probably should have won that bout, but I didn't have the courage to attack, so it ended 3-4, her win.

Trella was my third bout. (She was also the one who had lent me her foil. At this point, my coach had been able to come back with a new weapon and then took the other ones to have the guards changed. Fortunately, our friends at Fencing Post changed all four of ours with that size guard free of charge) Again, I was able to get the attack into prep with mixed success. She hit me on riposte a few times, and I had a very nice compound attack with fleche that hit off-target on the bib. However, I was still unwilling to actively try to hit her and the bout ended 1-3.

At this point, my coach had to remind me that it was division two and that no one there was

an A. That definitely helped me to go on the attack, or at least keep fighting until someone got 5 touches.

My bout against Szpak was a little bit frustrating. I was able to keep the phrase going, but my ripostes just never hit- and her remises did. She's a tall, skinny leftie whose technique and tactics weren't all that great. This time, at least, I kept going until she had scored five touches, instead of just giving up when she had three. Regardless, I lost the bout 1-5.

Using opposition ripostes, compound attacks, and second intention, I was able to win my fifth bout, against Chernyshova. She liked to pause after her parry to see what the other fencer would do. I let her pause, but when she came out with the riposte, I would reach for her blade, closing off the line and scoring the touch. I was also able to hit on a compound attack with a deep feint. (This is something that I had been working on but hadn't been able to make work very much). The final score was 5-3.

My last bout was against Dusinberre. I scored the first two touches on fleche with compound blade work, which again made me happy. Then she scored two touches on parry 6-riposte. With the score tied, I began having people stepping on my reel cord (once again) which rattled me quite a bit. In some weird haze, I decided to go on the attack, but without any real plan, and she continued to hit on riposte. Though she beat me 2-5, it was still a really fun bout. We had actual phrases with lots of different types of parries and attacks.

My seed coming out of pools was 100, but once again, I had missed the cut (the last person to make the cut was 98th). Despite this, I had ended the day on a high note and I now look forward to more foil fencing!