MEDIA RELEASE 5 December 2023 NORTH MELBOURNE – NSW fencer Naresh Sakhrani won yesterday’s Australian and Oceania veteran men’s epee competition, as part of the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships. “I started [fencing] when I was in Paris when I was 25 years old, a bit late, actually. When I came here [to Australia] there weren’t that many foilists at my club, UTS, so I switched to epee.” He says, “I like the speed [of fencing], the reflexes, the strategy behind it. With your opponents, you always have to do something different. With…

Photo credit: Ed Chiu  MEDIA RELEASE  5 December 2023  LIDOR SHAY WINS AUSTRALIAN AND OCEANIA WOMEN’S EPEE COMPETITION  NORTH MELBOURNE – Victorian fencer Lidor Shay won yesterday’s Australian and Oceania veteran women’s foil competition, as part of the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships. She’s enthusiastic about the benefits of fencing. “I think it’s really important to keep active, keep a healthy lifestyle, engage in sport as you age. I’m over 40, and fencing keeps you active, healthy, and socialised,” she said. “I think when you [fence] at an older age, the perspective is…

MEDIA RELEASE 7 December 2023  NORTH MELBOURNE – NSW fencer Thomas Deller won Tuesday’s Australian Youth Circuit boys’ epee competition, as part of the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships. “[The final bout] was very challenging for me. because I’ve fenced Sora [Robinson] a lot of times before, but I’ve been thinking about the previous bouts a lot and I finally managed to figure out how to counter what he does,” he said. “It’s very important to learn from previous bouts.” He’s been fencing for about five and a half years now, starting when…

MEDIA RELEASE 5 December 2023 NORTH MELBOURNE – Victorian fencer Dominic Yates won Tuesday’s Australian and Oceania men’s epee competition, as part of the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships. He enjoys fencing for its own sake, saying, “I just think [fencing] is such a rewarding sport to do. It’s physical and mental, and just I feel good after a training session.” But he also enjoys competition, and encourages the fencers he coaches to do the same: “The main thing is that they get the competitive nature of it. You have to be nice,…

MEDIA RELEASE  6 December 2023  MINISTER FOR SPORT STEVE DIMOPOULOS EXPRESSES PRAISE AND SUPPORT FOR FENCING  NORTH MELBOURNE –Victorian Minister for Sport Steve Dimopoulos, MP, had always enjoyed watching fencing on television. But his first chance to watch the sport live was the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships. “It’s a dynamic sport, iconic, when you think of the Olympics, one of the first sports in the [modern] Olympics. But I also love movies of medieval times, and this reminds me of those. It’s a sport that is clearly popular and Australians do well…

NORTH MELBOURNE – The results of the fifth day of competition at the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships are:  Australian and Oceania Men’s Epee  1  YATES Domenic  VIC – Victorian Fencing Academy  Victoria  AUS  2  PATCHEN JONATHAN  QLD – The Fencing Club  Queensland  AUS  3T  TELNYKH Taras  UKR  UKR  3T  BAKER Matthew  NZL  NZL  Oceania Men’s Epee Teams  1  Australia  CROOK Jacob  ENGLISH Alexander (Alex)  PATCHEN JONATHAN  ZEITOUN Nicholas  AUS  2  New Zealand  COCKIN David  GOURLEY Daniel  LIU Andi  VALKENBURG Matthew  NZL  Australian Men’s Epee Teams  1  Victoria A  DEMPSEY Henry  ENGLISH Alexander…

MEDIA RELEASE  5 December 2023  NORTH MELBOURNE – NSW fencer Emily Principe won yesterday’s Australian and Oceania women’s epee competition, as part of the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships. She commented that the final was a “tough match”: “I haven’t fenced Katarina Egan before, so going in, I think it was new for both of us. I’m lucky that I have a couple of years on her, so I had a little bit more experience.” Unusually, both competitors in the final match were quite young: Ms. Principe is 24, and Ms. Egan is…

MEDIA RELEASE  5 December 2023  NORTH MELBOURNE – The results of the fourth day of competition at the 2023 Australian and Oceania Fencing Championships are:  Australian and Oceania Women’s Epee  1  PRINCIPE Emily  NSW – Sydney University Fencing Club  New South Wales  AUS  2  EGAN Katarina  VIC – VRI Fencing Club  Victoria  AUS  3T  TWEDDLE Sophia  NZL  NZL  3T  JANSE VAN RENSBURG Genevieve  NSW – Newcastle PCYC Fencing Club  New South Wales  AUS  Oceania Women’s Epee Teams  1  New Zealand  BLACK Mary  CHALTON Anna  COOPER Claire  TWEDDLE Sophia  AUS  2  Australia  BUCHANAN Courtney  DEVEREAUX Anne (Annie)  EGAN Katarina  PRINCIPE Emily …

MEDIA RELEASE  4 December 2023  NORTH MELBOURNE – NSW fencer Sophia Glasson won Sunday’s Australian and Oceania Women’s Foil Championship event at the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships. “I began fencing in Shanghai when I was six years old, and from an early age I was doing international competitions. In 2019 I moved here and began working with [Coach] Antonio Signorello.” She’s keen to see Australian fencers take a larger place in international competition. “Obviously, [with] Australia being geographically isolated, it’s a bit difficult for Australian fencing, especially because it helps to be…

MEDIA RELEASE  4 December 2023  NORTH MELBOURNE – Victorian fencer Annabel Phuah won Sunday’s Australian Youth Circuit Girls’ Epee event at the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships. “I started when I was 10, so this is my fifth year. It’s just fun, and the people are nice, and I like the socialisation part, but I also like just being myself on the piste. You can fence how you want to fence, and nobody’s got any pressure on you.”  As she likes both fencing and travel, she’s aiming in the future to travel internationally…

MEDIA RELEASE  4 December 2023  NORTH MELBOURNE – NSW fencer Tiana Roberts won Sunday’s Australian Youth Circuit Girls’ Sabre event at the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships.  She enjoys the speed of sabre, and hopes to get into the Commonwealth team next year. She’s also considering a career in sports, and is already thinking about ways to bring Australian fencing along. “I’d probably like to get more people to join, and to try to get more girls in, and more people doing sabre. To see a lot more idols and see what everyone’s…

MEDIA RELEASE  4 December 2023  NORTH MELBOURNE – NSW fencer Min Yi Du won Saturday’s Veteran Women’s Sabre event at the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships.  Ms. Du, who was selected at age 17 for fencing at the Canton Institute of Sport in China, became a professional fencer a year later. At the time, she fenced foil, because it was the only weapon in which women were permitted to compete. She eventually switched to sabre, saying, “I really wanted to see women do well, like men do, so I swapped to sabre. In…

MEDIA RELEASE  4 December 2023  NORTH MELBOURNE – Queensland fencer Davide Wheeler won Saturday’s Veteran Men’s Sabre event at the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships.   “Today was tough. I was ranked number one after the pools, and my first [elimination] bout went easily, so I pushed through that. My second [elimination] bout for my semi-final was a little bit tougher, especially against my own coach! And then that final bout, with Damian [Kneale] – Damian’s an excellent competitor. He comes with the aim to always win, which is awesome, and he was…

MEDIA RELEASE 3 December 2023 FATHER AND SON SUPPORT EACH OTHER IN FENCING NORTH MELBOURNE – It was Colin Bosnic’s son Hugo who got him started in fencing. “He was in year 4, and was doing it as an after-school activity, and one of his friends said, ‘You should come fencing at my club,’” the older Bosnic recalls. The friend’s father urged Colin to come along as well, as the children and adults fenced at the same time. “So I thought, as opposed to the Australian thing of drinking coffee and putting on weight every Saturday morning [while the kids…

MEDIA RELEASE  3 December 2023  NORTH MELBOURNE – The third day of competition has finished at the 2023 Australian and Oceania Fencing Championships. Results are: Australian Men’s Foil Teams  1  Western Australia  BAUER Cedric  FITZGERALD Edward  THIAN Aron  WEATHERALD Matthew  AUS  2  Victoria A  CHAN Wun Sang  FARIA Matthew  LUN Alan  XIANG Runping (Aaron)  AUS  3T  New South Wales A  DELLER Thomas  FONTAINE Yves  SIGNORELLO Tommaso  AUS  3T  Queensland  BRAUN Kai  MADDEN Andrew  WARDELL John  AUS  Australia and Oceania Women’s Foil  1  GLASSON Sophia  NSW – Fencing Academy of NSW  New South Wales  AUS  2  SWEENEY Georgette  VIC – Blacklords…

MEDIA RELEASE  3 December 2023  NORTH MELBOURNE – Victorian fencer Salma Ahmed yesterday won the Australian Youth Circuit Girls’ Foil event at the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships.   She got started in fencing when she was given a flier at school five years ago. “I was already whacking my poor dad with plastic swords, so we went and we gave it a try.” She spoke about what she enjoys about fencing: “I like overall the mental game of fencing. I like that I have to be strategic and thinking about each move….

MEDIA RELEASE  3 December 2023  NORTH MELBOURNE – Western Australian fencer Ned Fitzgerald yesterday won the Australian and Oceania Men’s Foil event at the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships.  “I started [fencing] ages ago, when I was 9 years old, and I always say it was a cinematic inspiration,” he said. “I watched a lot of Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, blades and swords. My brother and I had a park near our house and we used to muck around with toy lightsabers. I saw an ad for fencing pop up because…

MEDIA RELEASE  3 December 2023  NORTH MELBOURNE – New South Wales fencer Gaia Hardge yesterday won the Australian and Oceania Women’s Sabre event at the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships. Despite her youth – she will be in year 12 in 2024 – she’s an experienced competitor with many years of training. She got her start at age 8 following her big brother into fencing. “He started fencing at our local club, Marrickville Marauders, and I was around it for years on end, watching, going to all the competitions, going to training, and…

MEDIA RELEASE  10 December 2023  NORTH MELBOURNE – NSW fencer Sarah Osvath won Tuesday’s Australian and Oceania veteran women’s epee competition, as part of the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships. She reflected on the changes she’s seen during her fencing career: “I’ve been an active fencer for five decades, and I have witnessed a significant number of changes. The most significant would be the introduction of women’s epee and sabre, so that we have gender equity and parity among all weapons in this sport we all love. I did 20 years of foil…

MEDIA RELEASE1 December 2023 NORTH MELBOURNE – Unlike many fencers,Andrey Tyshchenko came to the sport in adulthood, but others’ head start didn’t keep him from victory in the national veterans men’s foil championship today at the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships. “I started when I was almost a veteran, when I was 38, and I just enjoy the actions and the feeling of the competition and the feeling of the engagement of the body,” he said.  “I still enjoy it.” Mr. Tyshchenko enthusiastically recommends fencing for people of any age. “Definitely, definitely, I…

MEDIA RELEASE1 December 2023 NORTH MELBOURNE – Multiple Olympian, coach, and international fencing administrator Helen Smith, AM, has seen significant changes in Australian fencing since she started in the sport in the 1960s. “I think fencing in Australia has matured. The competitions now are run very well, very smoothly, with video refereeing. There’s been an evolution and a growth and a maturity in the sport. We have some very good athletes. Let’s hope we can help them and support them to go on to bigger and better things.” She added that Australia fencing is growing vigorously. “When I was president…

MEDIA RELEASE 27 November 2023 NORTH MELBOURNE – Over 400 of the top fencers from across Australia, New Zealand, and other countries, including world and national champions, will be competing at the 2023 Australian and Oceania Senior, Veteran, and Australian Youth Circuit Fencing Championships beginning Friday, 1 December, at the State Fencing Centre at 204-206 Arden Street, North Melbourne. The event, which is hosted by Fencing Victoria and supported by a grant from the Victorian Government’s Significant Events Program, serves as a crucial step in qualifying to represent Australia in international fencing events, including the Olympics. Fencing Victoria President Norbert…