Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)

In France, the Force is strong with lightsaber dueling

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BEAUMONT-SUR-OISE, FRANCE >> Master Yoda, dust off his French, he must.

It’s now easier than ever in France to act out “Star Wars” fantasies, because its fencing federation has borrowed from a galaxy far, far away and officially recognized lightsaber dueling as a competitiv­e sport, granting the iconic weapon from George Lucas’ saga the same status as the foil, epee and sabre, the traditiona­l blades used at the Olympics.

Of course, the LED-lit, rigid polycarbon­ate lightsaber replicas can’t slice a Sith lord in half. But they look and, with the more expensive sabers equipped with a chip in their hilt that emits a throaty electric rumble, even sound remarkably like the silver screen blades that Yoda and other characters wield in the blockbuste­r movies .

Plenty realistic, at least, for duelists to work up an impressive sweat slashing, feinting and stabbing in organized, 3-minute bouts.

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