2009 Malta Open attracts British clubs
The St Paul Fencing Club has just held the 2009 Malta Open, the 12th in the series. This year's Open saw the return of fencers from British clubs with the addition of a contingent from Imperial College, London. The tournament consisted of five...
The St Paul Fencing Club has just held the 2009 Malta Open, the 12th in the series.
This year's Open saw the return of fencers from British clubs with the addition of a contingent from Imperial College, London.
The tournament consisted of five individual events and a mixed team Epee competition, spread over two days.
In men's foil, Kurt Mifsud (SPFC) took gold and Paul Vincent Borg (SPFC) silver. In fencing events, except for the Olympic Games, there is no fight-off for third place. In foil, Juan Formosa (SPFC) and Matthew Camilleri Fava (EGFC) shared the bronze.
Defending Malta Open cham-pion, Andre Zahra (SPFC), was beaten by Chris Namih (ICFC) in the tableau of 16.
In men's epee, the Britons had the upperhand with Chris Gilliam (ICFC) storming to the final after eliminating Scott Willis (15-10) and John Clayton (15-14).
Juan Paz y Mino, of Ecuador, beat Juan Formosa (15-10) in the semis. Gilliam took gold after winning the final 15-9.
Kevin Alexander retained his Open sabre title after beating the versatile Gilliam in the final, 15-11.
The best-placed Maltese fencers, at joint third, were Formosa and Borg. This was the second year that sabre was played at the Malta Open as Maltese fencers have shown a great deal of progress lately in this discipline.
Women's foil was dominated by Hannah Bryars (ICFC). She showed excellent quality from the preliminary pools right up to the finals where she beat Emily Bottle 15-4.
Caroline Farrugia (SPFC) and Marie-Jo Scicluna (EGFC) shared third place. For Farrugia it was a superb ending to the season since she only started practising the sport in September last year.
Bottle did well to win epee gold after beating Romualda Vella (EGFC) in the final.
Vella's result was also very positive after her recent comeback at ranking tournaments.
The epee event for teams served as a tension-breaker with each side consisting of mixed nationalities and gender. The winners were Scott Willis, Kevin Alexander and John Clayton.
Juan Paz y Mino, a member of Federazione Italiana Scherma, was the tournament's referee. He was assisted by Nicky Bianchi, Alex Micallef and Ivan Vassallo.
Other support came from Salago Com, Adeptis Ltd, Mark Borg, St Thomas Institute and the Malta Tourism Authority.