FOR the 10th year in a row, Gwent Sword Club have been crowned Welsh fencing champions, writes Carl Difford.

But while for the previous nine years, the club’s women’s foil team have taken the title, this year it was the men’s team who topped the podium.

Gwent were well represented at foil in the Welsh Team Championships in Cardiff, with four men’s teams and two women’s teams entered, including Keigan Ayling, of Griffithstown, in the Gwent D team.

In the past, the club have also entered the epee competition, but with all team events now taking place on the same day they concentrated on foil, and that focus paid off.

The men’s A team of Welsh individual champion Celyn Lewis, Hugh Kocan and James Aichinger were seeded second after the pool stage of the competition, with arch rivals Cardiff-based Russell Swords’ senior team in pole position.

That meant they were kept apart in the knock-out stage until a hotly-contested final which saw Gwent take gold.

The Gwent men’s B team of Ceri Richards, Richard Thomas and Naoise Williams, were seeded fourth after the pools but battled their way to claim bronze.

And there was no disgrace for Gwent C (Mike Kocan, Mike Bridge, David Lloyd) or Gwent D (Ian Macklin, Keigan Ayling, Alex Hobbs), who finished fifth and sixth, respectively.

In the women’s competition, it took the formation of a ‘rest of the world’ team to prevent Gwent A from claiming their 10th straight title, as Russell Swords combined with Cardiff University to send out a cosmopolitan team which comprised Welsh individual champion Phoebe Dawe and students Beth Ellis and Weronika Kozuch, both members of this year’s highly successful Cardiff University fencing team.

In the end, experienced campaigner Catherine Fisher and youngsters Rhiannon Craig and Olivia Barbieri made them fight hard for their win as the teams met in the final match. Gwent held a 10-point lead early on, but couldn’t hold on and eventually went down 45-39.

Gwent B (Carlie Morgan, Amelie Aichinger, Anna McGoldrick) finished with the bronze medal.

A mixed sabre competition was won by Wrexham, ahead of Russell Swords ‘Red’ and ‘Black’ teams, while the men’s epee (there were insufficient women’s entries) was won by Cardiff, from Russell Swords and Swansea.