Northern Irish Open 2011

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On the weekend of the 14th January a small but very successful Trinity foil squad came home with three medals from the Northern Ireland Open.  On the Saturday, Ned Mitchell earned a strong seed in the poules of the Men’s Foil and looked comfortable through the DEs, but eventually lost an extremely fast-paced semi-final to eventual silver medallist Chris Cooke.  In the Women’s Foil, top-seeded Anna Smith defeated Victoria Duxbury in the final to retain the NI Open title, while DUFC honorary member Jenni Myung fought hard in the quarter final but was unable to beat Intermediate champion Lucy Taylor.

Colm Flynn and Rory Greenan competed in the epee event on Sunday.  Rory Greenan made a top-8 result, while Colm Flynn fought his way to the semi-final before being knocked out in a close match against Pembroke’s Shane Whelan, for Trinity’s second bronze medal of the competition.

Congratulations to all of our fencers!

Irish Open 2011

Trinity’s fencers enjoyed their usual success at this year’s Irish Open, achieving excellent results in all weapons and taking home four medals.

On Saturday, DUFC epeeist and pentathlete Tal Coyle’s athleticism and skill made taking the gold medal and becoming Irish Champion look easy; meanwhile, Anna Smith was once again named Irish Champion in women’s foil after tough matches against UCD’s Joana Ramalho in the semi-final and Germany’s Linda Schutlze in the final.

The Men’s Epee satellite, also held on the Saturday, was stronger than it has been in many years, with the gold medal going to Poland’s Radoslaw Zawrotniak, team silver medallist at the Beijing Olympic Games.  Despite this tough field, DUFC’s epeeists, Rory Greenan and Colm Flynn, acquitted themselves well, with Rory making a personal best result and Colm coming within three points of his first Satellite DE win, losing to Sweden’s Mattias Voigt 15-12 after three periods of intense fencing.

On Sunday, DUFC’s successes continued, with both Ned Mitchell and Declan Gibbons reaching the semi-final in men’s foil before being eliminated by Conor Nagle and Peter Brown respectively in well-fought bouts. Sabreur Jack McHugh managed to overturn an 8-2 deficit in the quarterfinal of the men’s event but was unable to complete his comeback and lost 15-12 to France’s Jean Charles Cadoret and finished 5^th in a strong field.

In the women’s event, both Helen Naddy and Liz Fitzgerald also battled back from tough first periods in their quarter-final matches against Aoife O’Loughlin and Alex Lolies respectively but were defeated, finishing 6^th and 7^th overall.  Congratulations also to Li Dong, who finished 14^th in the Men’s Foil, Geraldine Davies for her 15^th place finish in the Women’s Foil, and to Conor Traynor for his 27^th place Men’s Foil finish in his first open event.

Full Result Sheets Below:

DUFC Triumph over DCU in Colours Match

DUFC Women's Liz Fitzgerald Fencing DCU Women's

Congratulations to DUFC’s epeeists on a stellar performance on Thursday, 1st December, against DCU’s epee team.  Trinity’s Men’s Firsts team, Men’s Seconds and Women’s teams were all victorious in their matches by scores of 45 – 30, 43 – 32 and 45 – 34 respectively.  DUFC would particularly like to congratulate Clodagh McCarthy Luddy, Niall O’Brien and Ricci Savona, members of DUFC’s Development Squad who stepped up in this competition.

Thanks also to DCU for making the trip to Trinity, and for an excellent competition!

Full DUFC teams below:

Trinity Cup 2011

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Congratulations to Trinity’s First team on their gold-medal performance in the Trinity Cup on November 26^th. Trinity 1 took out Trinity 2 in the semi-final and then finished the day with a solid victory over Trinity’s Alumni team. The match stayed tight right up to the penultimate bout, where Trinity 1’s Jack McHugh delivered an exceptional performance against DUFC Alumni’s Rodrigo Gonzalez, giving Etienne Richard a lead over the Alumni’s Colm Flynn going into the anchor bout. After first-rate fencing on both sides, Trinity 1 took the gold medal.

The competition proved an excellent venue for DUFC’s newest fencers to test their skills against more experienced athletes. Despite a small turnout, with four of the five teams coming from within the DUFC community, our athletes fenced hard and were a credit to the club. Particular kudos to Ciara Greene, whose first-ever sabre performance made a major contribution to the DUFC Alumni’s success, and to Ian Mooney who subbed in for Dónal Mulligan of DUFC Alumni during the poule stages.

Full results below:

Schull Novice Cup 2011

Congratulations to everyone who travelled to Cork for the Schull Novice Cup 2011. Well done to all fencers who competed and a special thanks to Colm and Jack who travelled down especially to look after our new beginners and to Molly also for organising the trip. Thank you also to our hosts UCC on a well organised competition.

A big congratulations to Ciara O’Connor who came 1st in Women’s Foil, to Clodagh McCarthy Luddy who placed 3rd and also achieved the prize for best placed beginner and to David Barker on coming 3rd in Men’s Foil.

Schull 2011 was a great success for DUFC. Our novices having only fenced for seven weeks fenced impressively and did themselves their club and their University proud. Of the twenty beginners three finished in the top ten in Men’s Foil and five finished in the top twelve in Women’s foil. The future for DUFC looks bright in the years ahead. See more for a the full rankings.

West of Ireland Open and Welsh Open 2011

Congratulations to Colm Flynn and Anna Smith who competed in the West of Ireland Open 2011. Colm came out on top in the Men’s Epee event while Anna was victorious in Women’s Foil. See the full results below for Women’s Foil and Men’s Epee.

Congratulations also to Anna who competed at the Welsh Open 2011. Anna came eight in the competition, this is a UK personal best for Anna and she is delighted with her ranking. In the 16′s Anna beat Grace Williams of Plymouth 15 – 9, to go on to the semi-finals, finally loosing to Phillipa Mullins of Oxford University, 6 – 15.

Click here for the full results from the Welsh Open including Pools, Tableau and the overall Rankings.

Sabre Success at Irish Intermediates 2011

Jack McHugh pictured with Men's Sabre Trophy

Jack McHugh came first in the Men’s Sabre on Sunday, beating seventeen fellow competitors to take the crowm.  In what was a spirited match Jack beat fellow DUFC sabereur Rodrigo Gonzalez 15-8. The match was tight up to the break but Jack came out on top to take his place in the finals. Congratulations to Rodrigo on coming in third place.  In the final Jack beat fellow Irish team sabereur John McCabe from Boyne Valley, 15-9. The final proved to be a very close match before Jack managed to pull away, the score at one stage 10-9. Congratulation to Jack on his success.

DUFC turned out in great numbers with competitors in Men’s and Women’s foil, Men’s Sabre and Men’s Épée.

Geraldine Davies was seeded fourth after the poules in women’s foil after some great fencing. Unfortunately she was knocked out in the first elimination round after a close match. Li Dong was seeded eleventh after the poules in men’s foil. Li was in competition mode until his elimination in the last eight in a nail biting match. Li also fenced Sabre and Épée over the weekend. Well done to Conor Traynor who fenced men’s foil in his first tournament.

Congratulations to all DUFC fencers who took part in the Irish Intermediates in UCD on the 1st and 2nd October.