Features

Captain’s Report — 2006 Veterans World Championships — Bath, England

43 fencers in a 70 person group descended on Bath for the September 1-3 Championships.  28 countries were represented and more than 350 fencers participated.  The facilities were the best ever with 12 pistes laid over soft indoor tennis courts, then a separate room with 4 pistes for the rounds of 16 and 8, and a separate finals room with one raised piste.  Lighting was excellent, temperature comfortable and plenty of seating for spectators in the two smaller rooms.  The organizers presented lively entertainment, both live and audio-visual, for the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as  a reception with local officials and a gala dinner in two of the main attractions in Bath: the Roman Baths and the Assembly Rooms.

The camaraderie and cohesiveness of our group was superlative. Almost everyone made it out of the pools into the DEs , and every DE bout had a fencer/coach/helper/cheerleader on the sidelines.  21 made it to the round of 8 and we finished with 3 new World Champions: Ed Korfanty, MS 50+, Paul Apostol, MS 60+, and Delia Turner, WS 50+.  Silver medal winners were Susan Hurst, WS 60+, Jim Adams, MF 60+ and Larry Pinkus, MS 60+; additionally, Ray Sexton, ME 60+, Jane Eyre, WS 50+, Sharol Pestotnik, WS 50+ and Rudy Volkmann, MS 60+ each won a bronze medal.  Ed Korfanty fenced like a 35 year-old and Susan Hurst, fencing in her first World Championships, did extremely well.  When he was not fencing, Ed seemed to be everywhere in the saber events, coaching our competitors, and was an immense help.

For five straight long days, Scott Harkey and his helpers, E.D and Leslie, toiled in the Armory.  He solved every equipment problem we faced, first during weapons control and then during the competition.  Everyone was unanimously effusive with praise for our team of armorers, whose presence should be mandatory in all such large important competitions.

Finally, Wes Glon and Atilio Tass were stalwarts among the referees, and each participated in multiple finals events.  They were well recognized as superior international referees.

Photos are available at http://www.thephotoman.co.uk/Bath/ and http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2102213627&code;=24162328&mode;=invite&DCMP;=isc-email-AlbumInvite

                                                Respectfully submitted,

                                                Paul Levy, Chief of Mission