2007 Carl Schwende Junior World Cup

Montreal, Canada

January 21, 2007

Two Alliance fencers had the privilege of attending the Carl Schwende Junior World Cup on January 20. These were Nathan Sorensen, one of the twelve-member U.S. Cadet Men’s Epee team, and Pietro Sanfillippo, who constituted the entire Italian epee team. What started out as a fairly routine trip became a travel nightmare when the flight to Montreal was canceled due to inclement weather. Andrey’s calmness and decisiveness managed to get them all on a plane bound for Montreal. At 12:30 AM, they touched down in Toronto, exhausted by a long day of airplanes, airports, and travel headaches. However, on reaching baggage claim they soon found that their troubles were far from over; for despite being assured by an agent that their bags were on the same plane they were, they failed to appear at the baggage claim. Nathan and Pietro stared like zombies at the carousel entrance where the bags came out, but they still did not see their bags. Meanwhile, Andrey was talking to the agent trying to get find the bags. He said that they were not in the airport. Finally, Andrey explained the situation fully to the agent and gave the agent his cell phone number. The agent said that at best the bags could be gotten to the venue by 9:00 the next morning (or later that morning rather), the time of the start of pools. Then seeing that nothing more could be done, all three piled into a taxi and headed for the hotel, utterly exhausted and rather depressed. As they were leaving the airport, Andrey’s cell phone rang: it was the agent calling to say that the bags had been found! They raced back to the airport and lo, there they were! Never had fencing bags looked so beautiful! Then they headed to the hotel, and got all four hours of sleep before the tournament.
Four hours later, everyone woke up and headed down to breakfast, then to the venue. After a hasty warm-up, pools began. Nathan had a small pool, and went 2-2. Pietro’s pool was much larger and more difficult, and he went 1-5. However, both made the cut. Nathan won his first DE 15-5 but Pietro lost his 15-7. However, then Nathan lost his second DE 15-8 to Josh Dolezal, one of the top U.S. fencers. After they both got out, they enjoyed watching the high level fencing, including the number two and three ranked junior fencers in the world. Both watched and learned a lot. Thank you Andrey for all your help!!!!!

More photos coming soon!

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