Great success to the first Houston Cup
events putted up by August Skopik a Katy Blades head coach with high
quality fencing and fencers from the Houston area and from outside. Of
the eleven events scheduled, five were rated:
Senior Mixed Open Epee was a A2
Cadet (U17) Mixed Epee was a A1
Senior Mixed Open Foil was a B1
Senior Women Open Epee was a E1
Senior Mixed Open Saber was a E1
Daniel Trapani, undefeated in both the senior mixed open and
cadet mixed epee, won a very deserved "A-04" rating in the
open and 'renewed' his A rating by winning the cadet competition few
hours later. For the gold medal bout in Open Mixed Epee Daniel defeated
a former Olympian Risto Hurme from ATAC, Austin. Bravo Daniel!
Jim Geitgey earned his C-04 rating in epee.
It is also great to see that 5 young fencers, who are also great
friends, have achieved the "A" rating in epee over the past
four months. They are in chronological order Francesca Bassa, Collin
Eaton, Jonathan Bibb, Dillon Smith, and Daniel Trapani.
It was encouraging to see few old friends from Alliance, Bayou City,
Salle Mauro, Katy Blades and many other clubs in the Division showing up
and having a great time fencing. Fencers from 10 different clubs crossed
swords in 11 events (135 entrees total). Hopefully this will continue
and grow in particular after August, Andrey, and Alex Popovici announced
that this was the first tournament in the series of the Houston Cup, an
initiative of Alex Popovici after the Bay Cup in the San Francisco Area,
enthusiastically received and promoted by Andrey and August. Notice of
the Houston Cup have been sent in the past month to all the clubs in the
Division. It is hoped that owners of other clubs will cooperate and join
Alex, Andrey and August in this endeavor to promote the sport of fencing
and offer a cheap opportunity to all local fencers to compete and
improve their ratings without having to fly across the country. Please
click here for more information about the Houston Cup or contact Andrey
at aluf_geva@hotmail.com,
713-3017934.
