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Sabre rattling

Neil, Community team19 July 2007

On Saturday evening I enjoyed Gala Finals from the first day of competition in the Camden International Cadet Sabre Competition.In the Fencing world 'Cadet' means under-17 and there is currently no international competition circuit for top-flight fencers

A thrilling Men's Individual final saw home interest James Honeybone competing against Pascal Merle of Germany in a match refereed by Matthieu Gourdain, himself a double Olympic silver medallist for France.

It was a nice touch that in each bout the international referees were assisted by young Londoners responsible for managing the scoring equipment and themselves national age-group champions drawn from the Camden Fencing Club.

The photo shows Pascal Merle (airborne) about to score the winning hit on James Honeybone (lunging) after a final full of movement, emotion and showmanship.

Who knows, perhaps we'll see Pascal or James on the Fencing piste during the 2012 Games.