A dominant display from ZFW fencers at the Cadet and Junior British Championships 2022

ZFW’s boys and girls had a successful run at the Cadet and Junior National Fencing Championships - stacked with success, joy, and most importantly - silverware.

Cadet Men

In the Cadet (u17) category on Saturday the 17th of September, ZFW entered 5 boys into the tournament of 63, with David Sosnov taking home the gold medal, Henry Stirling placing 6th, Sebastian Beardmore-Esteban placing 13th, Alastair Thompson placing 15th, and William Stirling placing 57th. David had an extremely successful day and had a smooth run until meeting Scottish rival and teammate Callum Penman in the final which was a thrilling match, ending 15-6 to David.

Cadet Women

Five ZFW women fencers entered the Cadet (U17) British Championships in Nottingham. They all started well. Amelie Tsang, who won all her fights dropping only three hits, was ranked number one after the round of pools followed by Victoria Amore (10th), Marissa Green (16th), Sophie Mehra (21st) and Lily Schauer (36th). In the direct elimination rounds, Schauer exited in the round of 64 after narrowly losing 14-15. Three ZFW fencers then went out in the round of 16: Green unfortunately lost to club-mate Tsang, Mehra lost 14-15 and Amore lost 11-15. Tsang advanced in the semi-final beating Emma Hu from Edinburgh 15-13. In the final she won 15-6 against Megan Elliott from Inspion Sports.

Junior Men

The Junior (u20) age category on Sunday the 18th contained 61 competitors, 8 of which were from ZFW. David Sosnov once again took the gold medal, Dario Stenbeck-Schiavo took the bronze medal, Dominic Kiss took 22nd place, Sebastian Beardmore-Esteban took 26th place, Alexander Kennedy 30th place, Shalang Kolas 42nd place, Henry Stirling 47th place, and Julian Amore 56th place. An extremely successful day for the club overall, with half of the podium being ZFW fencers. Dario Stenbeck-Schiavo , who took bronze fenced Lucas Wagner (Academy Fencing) in the round of 32, Thomas Walton (Salle Holyrood) in the round of 16, Joseph Blair (Louth Fencing) in the quarterfinal, and his run was ended by Scottish champion Jaimie Cook in the semifinal. David, who took gold, fenced Aarav Chaudhari (Allez fencing) in the round of 32, Lachlan Jarvie (Allez fencing) in the round of 16, Rafael Rhys-Pollitt (FCL) in the quarterfinal, Joseph Donaghue (FCL) in the semifinal, and then in a nail biting final against Jaimie Cook, who previously defeated Stenbeck-Schiavo, David prevailed 15-13 to take the gold home. After an exhilarating two days of fencing, here’s what David has to say: I am honoured and very happy to join the small list of people to win the Nationals two days in a row, and I would like to thank all the coaches at the event, especially my coach Ziemek Wojciechowski for their support and belief in me.

Junior Women

Six ZFW women fencers entered the Junior (U20) British Championships in Nottingham. In the pool round, there were solid starts from Amelie Tsang (6th), Victoria Amore (10th) and Evie Bullman (14th), who each won four and lost only one fight. They were all ranked in the top 16 followed by Marisa Green (30th), Sophie Mehra (35th) and Lily Schauer (40th). Schauer was unlucky to miss the cut by one place. Mehra fell in the round of 64 having had to fence against club-mate Green. Both Amore and Green then went out in the round of 32; and Bullman exited in the next round.

Tsang progressed to the final and was hoping to make it a double to add to her title of British Cadet Champion which she won the previous day. She faced Isabella Johnson from Fencers Club London, who brought with them vociferous support. It was a tense match as the lead changed many times and it went to the final period with Tsang trailing 11-12. A nail biting finish ensued and Tsang had to dig deep and prevailed 15-13.

Tsang said afterwards “What a fight! All credit to Issy, she pushed me all the way. I was under pressure a lot of the time. I am very proud that I have won the junior title as a cadet. Now I have done the double!”

Thoughts from our coach....

Head coach Ziemek Wojciechowski, overwhelmed with pride says,

“ZFW Fencing Club has had an unprecedented start of season. It’s exhilarating to see our youth’s progress and trajectory. Amelie Tsang and David Sosnov both achieving double cadet and junior championship titles shows the continuation of the club’s might, starting with recently crowned British senior foil champion, Dominic de Almeida when he won the gold in June of this year. With that, de Almeida completes his collection of British titles across all age groups which has only been achieved by a handful of fencers in the entire history of British fencing. These titles include the cadet (under 17) junior (under 20) and under 23 categories. Harry Bird became senior Commonwealth foil champion in August, followed by Teagan Williams-Stewart taking home the gold in the women’s junior foil (under 20) category along with David Sosnov and Amelie Tsang both bagging the titles Commonwealth cadet (under 17) foil champions. With success come more opportunities and our fencers are fencing at world-class levels but in need of great financial support in order to participate in the international field. Any interested sponsors are welcome to get in touch! ZFW can be reached via email at zfwfencingclub@gmail.com.”