Sophie Williams Blog

GOLD MEDAL AT THE WELSH OPEN

Earlier in the month I made the (relatively) short journey to Cardiff for the Welsh Open, a Senior Domestic competition. It was a very successful weekend for me as I walked away with the Gold.
It took me a while to get back into the swing of domestic competition having done quite a few internationals in a row. After the first round I had won four fights and lost one, so I wasn’t as highly ranked as I might have hoped. However, my first couple of draws through the last 32 and last 16 were relatively comfortable victories. In the Quarter Finals I met my good friend from school Jennifer Tillott, but I kept my cool to win with relative ease. This put me into the Semi-Finals against Katherine Kempe (Brentwood) who had recently returned from the World Championships in Paris. It was a close match but I managed to win 15-13 which meant I was into the final against Olivia Benedek (USA). I didn’t know what to expect in the final as I hadn’t seen her fence before, but I soon picked up on her classically American style and used this knowledge to fence her very tactically and eventually won 15-9.
This was my first Gold at a major Domestic Open competition and it is great to have this continuing run of good results. It is rewarding to see all my hard work in training finally paying off. I am off to Poland next weekend for another Junior World Cup event. Hopefully my string of good results will continue!