African fencing glory in sight
The tournament was also used to improve the rankings of local players and a preparatory session for the Cadet Junior African Championship, which will be held from February 15th to 21st in Accra, Ghana.
After an impressive showing at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games last year, there is optimism amongst the fencing leadership that the local fencers are set to once more show their quality and excel at the Cadet Junior Championships.
“We learned a lot last year at the Commonwealth Games, we now understand which competitions work for us, the Commonwealth Games were fantastic for us but for the next edition, we will not feature. The Commonwealth Games don’t contribute much to our rankings but in terms of experience, yes we learned a lot. Our main focus now is on African Championships, World Championships and hopefully even go further and reach the Olympic Games in the future—these competitions will help us take a step further in our growth and qualify for other competitions,” BFF Public Relations Officer, Thabile Pilane told Sun Sports in an interview on Monday.
Over the weekend, Fencers competed in three categories: senior men, junior men and women, and cadet men and women. The squad will be chosen from the three fencing disciplines: epee, foil, and sabre.
Pilane shared that most of their players have been with the team for a while now and are expected to bring good results in Ghana.
“Most of the fencers who came 1st and 2nd over the weekend are athletes who have been with us for some time now, they have international experience; the likes of Lebone Mosinyi and Rethabile Mabaka; they were in Birmingham with us and did very well and there are clear signs of improvement in their game. So we do actually believe that we stand a good chance to impress at the Cadet Junior African Championship,” Thabile highlighted. The BFF mouthpiece further expressed her contentment with the turn-out at the weekend games but expressed her concerns regarding women participation in sport.
“I liked the turnout more especially for the cadet and junior categories, but I’m a bit disappointed by the low turnout by women, however, we are working on improving that aspect of our game,” she said. In closing, Pilane implored the corporate sector to not shy away from helping Fencing as they are currently facing financial struggles.
“Most of our clubs are community based, and they are still struggling to pay affiliation and registration fees. We are working really hard this year as the federation to come up with strategies which could help us disburse the little we’ll get,” she said.