A big congratulations to all our youth fencers who took place in the Paul Pesthy Memorial SYC tournament this past weekend!

We had Matias Arizmendi, Tiernan O'Neill, and Darius Roffe in the Y10 Foil category, and Thibault and Matthias Philippine in the Y14 Epee category.

First of all, when Maestro Abdul called me to tell me about the tournament, he was so excited and so proud of all the fencers. He said it was a great tournament and that the kids really had a good time. He was really happy to see the families of our fencers there to cheer them on! It sounds like it was a really great time.

In the Y10 Foil category, there were 34 fencers (this is a lot - usually, there are about 10-15). From this group, Darius came in 22nd, Matias came in 28th, and Tiernan came in 29th. Each one of them won at least one bout in their pools, also. Congratulations, you guys, on your first tournament!

If you'd like to look at the results and the pools, go here: http://www.goldengatefencingfoundation.org/events/WesternSYC2009/Results/Y10MF.htm

And now to the Philippines, who, I swear, it wouldn't be a tournament if they didn't have to fence each other at some point, which they did, again. Good grief.

There were 57 (57!) competitors in this tournament and Y14 is a tough crowd. There are Bs and Cs in this bracket. Some of these kids fence Senior tournaments. I know – I've run tournaments with them. They're good.

So after Matthias and Thibault had the obligatory bout together, Thibault came in 8^th and earned his Eo9! Finally! Congratulations! (According to many of us, this should have happened a long time ago. Same with Matthias.) Matthias came in a respectable 32^nd. Good job, guys! Now get back to work. :D

If anyone would like to see the results and the pools, look here: http://www.goldengatefencingfoundation.org/events/WesternSYC2009/Results/Y14ME.htm

Cheers!