Our cubs roar!


An 11-strong RTWFC team travelled to London for the Leon Paul Junior Series on 28th and 29th January, and headed home with a swag bag of six bronze medals. Both our older, more-experienced fencers and our younger ‘cubs’ – five of them competition rookies – performed strongly on a very positive weekend for the club.

On Saturday, Andrea Ross was on top form, winning a bronze medal in the U15 girls’ event. Andrea won seven out of 12 poule bouts, then progressed to the semi-final with DE scores of 15-5 and 15-10, where she ran out of gas against eventual winner Emma Mitzova. Team-mate Hiba Rochdi wasn’t at her combative best, but still managed to scrap her way to 11th place.

The U9 & U11 events got underway first on Sunday, and Willa Raymond and Odin Cheung duly won their quarter finals to bag bronzes before both ran into the eventual winners – Willa only losing 10-7 and showing great progress against an opponent she’d struggled with earlier in the day. Team-mate Joachim Mathew showed tenacity to finish 5th overall.

In the U11 Girls event, both Artemis Nakos and Seraphine Mathew fenced strongly in the poules to go into the knockout rounds as 4th and 7th seed respectively out of 15. Both then won their first two DE bouts comfortably before being halted at the semi-final stage. Team-mate Lorenzo Rehman showed plenty of potential in the Boys event, finishing a creditable 11th out of 17.

In the afternoon, three RTWFC fencers took on the U13 ranks. Elsa Brondbjerg and an under-the-weather James Dunmall both won their L32 bouts, before going out in the last 16, but it was Alec Hargreaves who provided the final podium moment for the club. Having started slowly and being seeded 11th out of 22 for the Direct Elimination rounds, Alec gained momentum, winning his L32 bout 10-0, then knocking out the 5th & 4th seeds 10-9 and 10-6 respectively before coming up 1 point short against the eventual winner in a nail-biting semi-final.

Final positions
🥉 Willa Raymond (U9 Girls)
🥉 Odin Cheung (U9 Boys)
5th Joachim Mathew (U9 Boys)
🥉 Artemis Nakos (U11 Girls)
🥉 Seraphine Mathew (U11 Girls)
11th Lorenzo Rehman (U11 Boys)
15th Elsa Brondbjerg (U13 Girls)
🥉 Alec Hargreaves (U13 Boys)
15th James Dunmall (U13 Boys)
🥉 Andrea Ross (U15 Girls)
11th Hiba Rochdi (U15 Girls)