The last Mercury Cup took place yesterday (Sabrage). I wasn't planning on taking it too seriously, so I didn't alter my practice schedule or anything like that, but I did bring my competition electric stuff to give it more of a serious feel. I wanted to at least fence to 100% of my ability for the whole day.
As usual for a mixed event, the pools were ridiculously unbalanced. I had McGough, Pochapin, Suna, Maldonado, Mattison, and Russell. I went 6-0, good indicators, tied me for 2nd seed, went into the DE tableau as 3rd. It was an incomplete 64, with repechage from 16-8. I had a bye into the 32.
In the 32 I fenced Beverly Yang (blog reader high five!). I figured that I could concentrate on defense and not take the risk of getting closed out in simultaneous. Attacks in prep were really what worked for me. I won 15-5 or so.
In the 16 I fenced Paolo Roselli, a clubmate who can really give me a hard time on the strip. I came out strong with some long attacks and attacks in prep, jumped out to an 8-1 lead, then 10-3. But then, the bout started turning around. I think Paolo decided to step it up a notch, and he made some attacks which I just couldn't stop. All of a sudden he was caught up to me. At 14-14, I attacked, missed, stepped back and tried to counterattack, but he finished his attack to win the bout. I was pissed that I let him come back from such a defecit. But there was repechage, so I wasn't out of it yet.
In the first rep. round, I fenced Tiki Kastor. I found what worked early- fake the counterattack, pull the attack short, then long attack. I took that strategy all the way to 15-8.
So now my next bout was to make the top 8. I was fencing... Paolo Roselli again, who had lost his next bout. I figured I had a better chance this time because he was visibly tired, plus I knew what I absolutely could not do- let him take over the attack. I couldn't stop his attack, so I was only going to make actions in the center or push him back. He took the early lead, but I came back, and we went neck and neck all the way back to, you guessed it, 14-14. I pulled him short in the middle, attacked, and got parried in 5. At that point, I knew that if I opened the distance up he would take over the attack and I wouldn't be able to stop him. So I wasn't going to do that. I was going to plant my feet and take a parry. I guessed 4, he went 3. Another 15-14 loss and now I was done for good.
I was really upset with myself after losing for the second time, on almost the same touch. Paolo's a clubmate and a friend though, so I couldn't stay angry for that long. He said afterwards that I really wore him out the second bout, and Pat tells me that the fact he had to go 100% to beat me 15-14 means I've made huge improvements in my fencing. A year ago that same bout would have been 15-6.
I haven't seen the results yet but I figure I finished 9th. Not good compared to my expectations. More things to think about for Portland.
Speaking of Portland, I'm amazed at how expensive the airfares are despite the price of oil. EWR-PDX is around $460, JFK is about $100 cheaper. I haven't bought yet, I'm hoping that prices will drop somewhat. I think I paid around $300 last year, and that was around the time of $4 gas.
02-22-2009 02:33 PM