ALLIANCE FENCERS AT THE INTERNATIONAL “A” CADET WOMEN'S EPEE TOURNAMENT

HEIDENHEIM, GERMANY

November 13-14, 2004

Francesca Alexandra BASSA and Stephanie WHEELER were part of the USA team competing at the 17th edition of the Heidenheim International “A” Cadet Women's Epee Tournament, a USFA chosen event for international designated points. 206 fencers from 10 countries (Germany, France, Russia, Great Britain, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and USA) started the competition which was held at the Fechtzentrum in Heidenheim, a facility built for and dedicated to fencing, one of the three top fencing centers in Germany.

The format of the competition was new for our fencers and offered the opportunity to do a lot of fencing over the two days. The first round cut from 206 to 138 fencers in pools of 6 or 7 fencers. All the American fencers made the cut. Francesca won all her pools and finished 18^th overall. Stephanie won 3 and lost 2, finishing 72^nd overall. The rest of the Americans placed after the first cut: FRENCH C. (2^nd), MOSS (5^th), FINKEL (26^th), FRENCH K. (31^st), HURLEY (33^rd), BRANDFIELD-HARVEY (71^st), LYNCH (78^th), CLAY (79^th).

Two intermediate rounds followed to cut from 138 to 91 fencers and from 91 to 64 fencers in pools of 6 or 7 fencers. In the first intermediate round Francesca won 4 and lost 1 in her pool, finishing 29^th overall. Stephanie won 3 and lost 2 in her pool, finishing 66^th overall. The rest of the Americans standing: FRENCH C. (1^st), HURLEY (3^rd), MOSS (7^th), FRENCH K. (20^th), BRANDFIELD-HARVEY (23^rd), CLAY (31^st), LYNCH (67^th). FINKEL placed 101^st and did not make the cut.

In the second intermediate round the cut was from 91 to 64 fencers in pools of 6 or 7 fencers. Francesca won 3 and lost 3 bouts in her pool, finishing 48^th overall. Stephanie unfortunately won 1 and lost 5, two by 5-4, after she became quite upset for unfavorable calls by the judge. She finished 76^th. Stephanie fenced very well, but the nerves got the best of her at the end of the day after 16 rounds of pools. The Americans standing in the second intermediate round: MOSS (9^th), HURLEY (23^rd), LYNCH (34^th), FRENCH C. (37^th), BRANDFIELD- HARVEY (40^th), CLAY (41^st), FRENCH K. (45^th).

At the end of the first day, after more than eight hours of fencing, the final standing of all qualified fencer was calculated by including the results of the last two intermediate rounds. All fencers who made the cut had fenced 16 pool bouts to 5 with a good cross section of fencers from Germany, France, and the rest of the countries represented. The final standings after the first day: MOSS (4^th), HURLEY (11^th), FRENCH C. (13^th), BRANDFIELD-HARVEY (25^th), FRENCH K. (27^th), CLAY (33^rd), BASSA (36^th), LYNCH (39^th).

The next day fencing started promptly at 9 a.m. The format this time was direct elimination (DE) with repechage from 64 to 32. This meant that to be out one had to lose two bouts to 15. Francesca started the day in 36^th place. She won her first DE 15-12 against SHAFFEROVA (CZE) (29) a strong, tall, and very physical fencer. Her next DE was with KIRSCHEN (GER) (4) a lefthanded, ranked #2 in the DFB (the German Fencing Federation) with ample international experience who beat her 12-11 in a very close bout, getting the last touch under priority. In repechage Francesca had to face team mate CLAY and won 15-8. This brought her to 31^st place in top 32. Other Americans making to top 32 were HURLEY (7^th), FRENCH C. (8^th), FRENCH K. (12^th), and MOSS (18^th).

In the round of 32 direct elimination with repechage to final 8, Francesca (31) beat 15-14 the strong (#6 in the DFB) MILLER (GER) (2) in a very exciting bout with the lead switching back and forth and loud support from the German public to their fencer. She then beat 15-13 BLATTMANN (GER) (18), another tall and physical fencer after being down 4 touches at the beginning of the bout. Finally she defeated 15-14 CHRETIEN (FRA) (26), a tall fencer with a very long reach who had given her some problems in pools the day before. The bout started even with the lead first going to the French, switching back to Francesca who held her back until the end while the entire French contingent and their coaches were loudly prompting and supporting their fencer. This string of victories landed Francesca in the 4^th slot of the final eight. The other American fencers had to fight through repechage and eventually only HURLEY made to top eight in the 6^th slot.

In the quarter finals DE Francesca (4) met again KIRSCHEN (GER) (5). She lost 15-11 in a bout where the German kept her lead, finishing 8^th overall. HURLEY (6) defeated 15-7 the #3 DFB ranked SCHNEIDER (GER) (3) in the quarter finals, and 15-9 the #5 DFB ranked HAAS (GER) (7) in the semifinals. In the final bout HURLEY lost 8-15 to #7 DFB ranked HENNING (GER) (1), the local champion.

On the podium of the final eight stood two Americans, HURLEY and Francesca, and the other six top German fencers, three of them from the hosting club, to receive their prizes and the applause of the spectators..

The final placement of the US team members is:

02. Courtney HURLEY

08. Francesca Alexandra BASSA

09. Kayley FRENCH

16. Rebecca MOSS

25. Christa FRENCH

34. Chandler CLAY

52. Neely BRANDFIELD-HARVEY

56. Katherine LYNCH

76. Stephanie WHEELER

101. Tess FINKEL

The American contingent became respected and feared during the course of the competition, in particular by the very vocal French fencers which were mostly eliminated by ours. Regardless, at the end of the tournament our fencers made many new international friends with whom they look forward to cross swords in the future. Team USA was accompanied by Andrea Lagan of Boulder, CO, in charge of the National Women's Epee Program of the USFA, and two American judges, Gerry Baumgart and Donald Alperstein form Colorado.

For all the details (in German) check this link:

http://www.fechten.de/cgi-bin/smartarchive/uploads/heidenheim_04_ajgd_dd.pdf