Ed climbs the international ladder
This weekend saw the last of the current season's Junior World Cups for Ed Howlett - this time in Leszno, Poland. This was another very strong competition, with almost 200 of the world's top U20 men's foilists present. Ed had a very tough poule, with each of the fencers in it having represented their country in zonal and world cadet and/or junior championships. Ed beat Canadian Darren Dong 5-3 and Ukrainian Mykita Malynovskyi 5-1 (so matching his seeding), but lost out to Belarusian Uladzislau Kurylovich, American Andrew Machovec, Italian Alessandro Stella and Pole Jakub Dolzycki.
This meant a L256 DE against a higher seeded fencer. His opponent was Mateusz Kozac, a Canadian a year older, who is on the senior Canadian squad and who is in line to be selected for the U20 Pan-American Championships. This would be tough. Ed matched Kozac equally through the fight and pulled away to lead 14-12. Ed tried to finish the match off with a fleche but got an off target. Kozak pulled one back. Ed changed tactics and got a clean single on target light to win the match. An excellent result, with the hit of the match being a close up flick to shoulder from Ed.
Ed then faced American Ethan Gassner, the 6th seed. Gassner is becoming a regular in the the US senior squad, so an even more difficult task was ahead. Ed took a 4-1 lead but Gassner pulled it back and then pulled away. Both fencers were counterattacking successfully in the match, with Gassner being slightly ahead of Ed in the game. Ed changed his line towards the end of the fight and the momentum was swinging strongly towards him, but it was too late to change the end result, which was an 11-15 loss. Gassner went on to make L16, with the best result of the US team. Ed finished 128th, earning international points. 4 others in the GB squad finished in the same round, with 1 in L256, 2 in L64 and 1 in L32.
Ed finishes his international JWC season 172 places above where he finished last season. He has been far more consistent in his poule results and is not far off some big DE wins. The rest of the season will comprise training, sparring, a number of domestic competitions and, no doubt, a training camp somewhere in Europe in the summer.
On the domestic front, Ed fenced in the Kings College London team against Queen Mary University of London. His indicator in men's foil was large and the team won 135-75, taking them back to the top of the South Eastern 1A division.
Meanwhile, James Rutherford starred in all three weapons as Nottingham Trent beat local rivals Loughborough University 2nds 135-90, taking NTU back to the top of Midlands 2A division.
