Sharon Jones reports
Our representative this weekend at the English Youth Championships was Arthur Eakin. In the younger year of the U13 boys' foil, he fenced very well, but his final position of 51st from 80 fencers didn't reflect this. In one of the smaller poules of 6 rather than 7, he beat Ethan Mansfield of Chichester 5-0 and had a stunning 5-4 win over Adrien Helmy Cocoynacq of Cobham, who finished with a bronze medal. He was well beaten in a 1-5 loss to the experienced Leo Lim of ZFW in London, but fell just 1 point short in a 2-3 loss to Noam Bouhadana of Escrime Academy in London and in a 4-5 loss to Jacob Iqbal of King's Swords, also of London. Just two hits would have given Arthur a seeding for the DEs of 19th, but instead he had a tougher seeding of 49th. He fenced sensibly in L128 by beating Alexander Tonkin of the Fencing School in London 8-4 and met Oliver Hughes of Cobham in L64. Arthur had never beaten him before but gave him a very credible run for his money, losing only 7-10.
In other news, Ed's exams finished this afternoon and he resumed sparring in Sheffield this evening after a complete break of several weeks and reduced training before that. He is competing in the RAF 100, a senior open in Cosford, on Saturday so will be working hard this week to get back into fencing condition.