Sophie Williams Blog

Tunisia and Lamezia

A few weeks ago I found out that I had not been selected for the Junior (under 20) World Championships in Azerbaijan this year. Although this was disappointing, it is very normal for the first season on a new training programme not to get the results that you were hoping for.  In fact, sometimes you even have to go back a couple of steps in order to move forwards for the following season.
Instead I have decided to put a heavier focus on the senior circuit for the rest of this season, and so a few weekends ago I went to Lamezia Terme in Italy – a senior grand prix event.  Although I didn’t get the best result I fenced well especially as it was my first proper senior event of the season and I was fencing against some of the world’s top fencers, many of whom were much older and more experienced than me.  Although I won one fight in my first round, I lost five (although two of them were only 5-4) and so was cut after the poules.
Shortly afterwards, I went to Tunis, Tunisia for another senior grand prix.  I started off fencing really well, winning my first two fights, and only narrowly losing the next two, but then I just couldn’t maintain my performance for the whole poule and lost my last two fights as well.  Although I thought I’d fenced well enough to make it through to the next round, unfortunately I narrowly missed the cut and so was out of the competition.
Although the results were a little disappointing, I can take big bonuses from the fact that I actually wasn’t too far off the standard, I just couldn’t maintain the performance, which is something for me to work on.  I now have a little break between competitions, so I am going to just put a lot of effort into my training and focus on improving my results for the rest of the season.