Godollo Report 2017
Over the weekend of the 30th September/1st October Wrexham’s very own Steph Phennah represented the Great Britain as part of Cadet Sabre Team in Godollo, Hungary. Accompanied by her coach, Mike Evans-Jones, they headed off to the event, which forms one of a number of European Cadet Circuit events across the continent and further afield. These events bring together the best under 17 fencers to compete in both team and individual events.
In the team event on the Saturday Steph’s GB team was drawn against The Netherlands A team. The match started very close, with Steph helping to pull back some hits before the Dutch team pulled away in the middle and secured a comfortable victory 45-24. This was a good warm-up to the individual events and Steph did not seem to be overly phased by her first experience on GB International duty!
The individual event is very hotly contested and the standard of competition is very high, linked to this the competition cuts 20% of the field after the first poule. Steph was drawn in a poule with Hungarian, Romanian, Italian, Ukrainian and German opposition. But undeterred by this task, and determined to gain some good experience Steph took to competition with a positive and progressive attitude. Steph managed to win one match, and came close in two others, losing out 5-3 after leading both.
Steph was ranked 146 out of 170 after the first poule stage but unfortunately this wasn’t enough to make the cut into the second round. However, it was a very positive experience, with lots to build on for the future. Having finished fencing for the day Steph and Mike were able to see some of the sights of Budapest before an early flight home on Monday.
Steph was a superb ambassador for Wrexham Fencing Club and conducted herself superbly both on and off the piste in a new, and potentially daunting, environment admirably. Steph has just found out that she has been selected for the Cadet Womens Sabre team going to Eislingen near Stuttgard this November so huge congratulations are in order. Hopefully Steph will continue to push on and with continued hard work and the ongoing support of all at the club retain her place in the GB squad.