Sophie Williams Blog

5th place in Germany

03/12/10
This weekend I’m travelling to Dormagen in Germany with the GB team to compete in the next instalment of the Junior World Cup season.  Although heavy snow has affected travel around the UK, we’ve made it to Heathrow in good time!  After a good start to the season at the European Junior Championships and the Madrid World Cup, I was disappointed with my result two weeks ago in Sosnowiec.  But training has been great for the last few days and I’m optimistic about my chances of a good result.

04/12/10
The Dormagen Junior World Cup was the strongest event of the season so far.  The full teams from Russia, USA, Poland, Germany, France, Italy, Ukraine, Japan, Austria, Hungary, Spain, Canada, Romania and a number of other countries were competing.  I had an excellent first round winning a perfect 6 out of 6 fights for the first time in my World Cup career.  After this strong start I was seeded 3rd in the field of 125.  I had a bye through to the Last 64 stage of the knockout fights where I won comfortably 15-5 against Tarantini of Italy.  In the Last 32 stage I faced the difficult task of fencing my best friend and team-mate Jessica Davies, but I managed to overcome this obstacle and won 15-9.  Into the top 16 and I took on another Italian, Petraglia.  I was losing 8-6 at the break, but after a brief tactical discussion with my coach Jon Salfield in the one minute break, I turned the fight around well, and took a 15-11 victory to make the quarter finals for the second time this season.  In the Last 8 match I again went into the halfway break with a deficit, this time 8-2.  Although I came back very strongly, the gap was too big and I lost out 15-11 to Varhelyi of Hungary.  I was placed 5th overall in a world-class event, and although I would have loved to have made the podium again, I felt like this was the strongest performance of my career so far.  I’m looking forward to the updated World Rankings, and hope to move into the World top 16!

05/12/10
We’re travelling home to the UK now, and after as rest tomorrow I’m back into daily training.  My next foreign trip will be to Lignano in Italy after New Year, for a 4 day training camp with the Russian and Italian team, and then the final Women’s Junior World Cup of the season.