PRESS RELEASES ARCHIVE - 11
Louise loses in Athens - Journal - 18th August 2004
AN EBRINGTON teenager's hopes of Olympic gold were ended in Athens on Tuesday.
Louise Bond-Williams, one of only two Great Britain competitors in the fencing competition, lost out in the last 16 of the women's individual sabre.
The 22-year-old former Chipping Campden School pupil, currently living and studying in America, won her first bout against German Susanne Koenig 15-13 only to fall foul of third-seeded Russian Elena Netchaeva 15-12 in the next round.
The Cotswolds girl and reigning British Sabre champion, had last month tipped American Sada Jacobson for gold but it was compatriot Mariel Zagunis won earned the States its first fencing gold medal in 100 years after defeating China's Tan Xue.
Jacobson beat Romania's Catalina Gheorghitoaia to take the bronze medal after losing out to Tan Xue in the semi-finals.
The last US fencing gold was won in the single sticks in St Louis in 1904 by Albertson van der Post - the only time that that event has been held at the Olympics.
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Family affair as Brendas lead KES fighters to top - Journal - 16th July 2004
TEAMS from King Edward VI School in Stratford all finished ahead of the team from the Combined Services (Army, Navy and Air Force) in the British Team Sabre Open Championships at RAF Cosford last weekend.
One of the boys' teams, led by David Brenda, 18 (KES) from Alcester was a family affair, with his brothers Tom and Richard, both 17 (Alcester Grammar School) making the other two places. This is a record in itself!
The Brendas took third place in the championships in which 13 teams from sabre fencing clubs all over the country took part. All the Brendas train at the KES-based Stratford Fencing Centre.
KES's own team, led by their new captain, Tom Musgrave, 17 from Clifford Chambers, beat a strong team from the North East's specialist sabre centre to make the quarter-finals, where they were dispatched by another Tyneside team, Laszlo's Fencers.
The same group also stopped the KES second string from making further progress. Even so they had acquired sufficient points to put them in tenth place, one position higher than the Combined Services at 11th.
Clearly KES has put down a marker for the future as two of this team, Mike Turner and Luke Foster are only 15.
The Shakespeare's girls' team battled through the pool round to make the cut into the elimination stage of the contest.
Last fencer on, Louise Bond-Williams, was left with an impossible deficit to make up in the last fight, where she needed to make 31 hits to her opponent's five, she gained 18 in the time.
Lauren Sewell had put in a solid performance with the confidence of her 15th place in the individuals the day before.
The teams all trained at the sabre centre in King Edward VI School, while Bond-Williams is currently training in the USA at Ohio State University on a fencing scholarship.
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Sabre success for Ebrington fencer - Journal - 16th July 2004
STRATFORD celebrated at the double after the British National Fencing Championships last weekend when Mike Johnson, 23 from Bridgetown, Stratford (Portsmouth University) and Louise Bond-Williams, 21, from Ebrington (Ohio State University) triumphed at the National Sabre Championships.
The newly crowned champions started at King Edward VI School in Stratford where Johnson was a pupil at King Edward VI School, where he learnt his swordsmanship alongside Bond-Williams.
The young Cotswolds girl showed her talent early. At the age of 12 she won the West Midlands Girls Sabre Championships, while Johnson has held every British title except the senior championship.
This year he completed his set and is the only man to have achieved it.
Both finals produced their share of drama. Johnson fought neck and neck with his opponent, Chris Jamieson from Scotland, until they reached the last points of the championships.
Johnson trailed 14-13 with Jamieson needing only one hit for his first championship victory. However, Johnson showed his class to move up yet another gear to produce two stunning hits.
Bond-Williams found herself 11-8 down against her domestic rival, Crystall Nicoll, 17, from Blandford.
She was the one person that could have taken the title from Bond-Williams and at that stage it looked like she would do it.
But, Bond-Williams isn't the British No 1 for nothing, and she focused hard to regain the tactical advantage and swept through the remaining hits with deceptive ease to take the title for a sixth time.
The new champion is hoping to qualify for the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
Will Garrity, 20 (Stratford College) from Chipping Campden won the bronze medal. He had been one of Johnson's victims in the semi-final and was fencing well.
Again he had a tough fight with the eventual champion taking him all the way to the last point and only conceding the match 15-14.
Peter Kirby, 18 (Chipping Campden School) from North Littleton was another Johnson victim.
The two met in the last 16 and Kirby had the upper hand at halfway but Johnson pulled his championship standard out of the hat and took the fight 15-14 denying Kirby his first championship quarter-final place.
The other Stratford fencers also produced some outstanding results from their younger rising stars.
On top form were brothers Tom and Richard Brenda, 17 (both Alcester Grammar) who finished 23rd and 25th with their elder brother, David, 18 (KES) in 37th place. Fellow KES student Aaron Fox was 42nd
Stratford-trained teenager Lauren Sewell from Coventry also fenced in the championships and recorded a personal best when she took out her last 32 opponent.
The fencers train in Stratford at the KES Centre of Excellence and the Stratford Fencing Club on Tuesday and Wednesdays. Both clubs offer introductory training for beginners and excellent facilities.
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Ace Kirby qualifies for world championships - Standard - 12th March 2004
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Rising star, Peter Kirby has won a place in the British team for the World Youth Fencing Championships in Bulgaria next month.
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Britain, he came fourth and show mentors Sally Gunnell and Colin Jackson - both Olympic gold medal winners - picked out Kirby as a future medal hope for Britain.
This season Kirby has gained his place in the team after qualifying at two World Cup events in Germany and Spain. He is now ranked in the top 50 in the world and has already finished in the top ten in a World Cup event, beating last year's world No 1 to do it.
Kirby went to Chipping Campden School and comes from the fencing family where his father David, 53, started the centre in Stratford and coached Peter from the beginning.
He has now passed the mantle of personal coach on to Rome, who is another Hungarian trained fencing master. Father David still oversees the training and now runs the British Under-20 national squad and will be the team captain for the coming World Championships.
Kirby plans to go to university this year and, after the Worlds, intends to take a gap year and travel with his friends to Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.
But his sporting future is uncertain, even after winning a final place in the Born to Win series, as he has no funding for his training.
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