County and regional medal doubles for Huntingdonshire stars
Huntingdonshire Fencing Club members, from the left, Sylvia Brown, Jacque Portal, Zoe Hopwell, Hannah Smyth, Dan Summerfield and Caleb Dyne. - Credit: Archant
Two hot Huntingdonshire Fencing Club prospects tasted success at the Eastern Region Youth Foil Championships.
Dan Summerfield won the Under 16 boys category to book his place in the British Youth Championships later this year.
Summerfield overcame Luca Valetti of the London-based Saxon club 15-8 in the final of the event staged in Grays, Essex.
Hannah Smyth reached her first Eastern final and captured the silver medal in the Under 16 girls section.
Smyth was eventually pipped 15-11 by Emilija Lukaite of Newham Swords in the final, but performed impressively to also book her British Youth Championships berth.
Zoe Hopwell (Under 14 girls) and Caleb Dyne (Under 14 boys) battled through the pool stages before going out in the first and second rounds of direct elimination respectively.
Summerfield and Smyth were again among the medals at the Cambridgeshire Senior Foil Championships in St Neots.
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Summerfield claimed silver after being pipped by reigning champion Phil West in the men’s final. Summerfield had earlier beaten Huntingdonshire clubmate Richard Sage in the quarter-finals while Jacque Portal went out to eventual winner West at the same stage.
Dan Tozer also advanced from the pool stage before going out to Peter Thompson of Cambridge, who then fell to Summerfield himself in the semi-finals.
Dyne also competed in the men’s class despite only being 13 years of age and gave a fine account of himself to get through the pool round before bowing out in his opening direct elimination tussle.
Smyth earned another impressive silver medal in the women’s event when going down by the narrowest of margins, 15-14, to Fiona Turnbull of Cambridge in the final.
Two other Huntingdonshire fencers clashed in the first opening round of direct elimination.
Sylvia Brown had the edge over Amy Lovell, but then fell herself to Turnbull in the quarter-finals.
