I reffed the cherry blossom all weekend. Probably the most enjoyable 2 days I've had in a little while.

Saturday was the mixed epee and the women's foil. I did a pool of mixed epee in the morning, that was pretty unfun. I really do not enjoy reffing epee on ungrounded strips. I was happy that as soon as that pool finished I was immidiatly given a pool of women's foil, and sent right out. The pool went well, pretty uneventful, but very well. I was given a quadrant of the teableu, and I was able to barrel through it really fast. I think there were maybe 2 bouts that went to the 2nd period, and none that made the third. It was nice

I took a bout for another ref, that didn't really go that well. It ended up being 15-14, and it was one of those bouts thats all tempo. In general, I feel like I am pretty strong on attack/counter attack, but I know I missed a few in this bout. There were a few that I called simul that weren't, but I couldn't see the attack. When both fencers go hard, I can see it pretty well, the problem I have is when one fencer comes foreward, maybe stops, maybe doesn't stop, then they both go. I can have a hard time seeing if the first one stops or not. After the bout, the guy who was coaching one of the fencers came up and talked to me, and told me I was missing a few attacks on the ones I threw out. I agreed with him. Even though he was sorta partial in that bout, everything he said was right. He is also a very fine referee himself.

Either way, after that bout I was feeling kinda like I should be done with that event. But, I was sitting watching sabre, and Greg Dilworth came up and gave me a bout sheet for a semi-final. Kinda nervous at first, but it wasn't a close bout, and it went very well. Yay. Then later, I was sitting watching the epee, and Greg came up to me and handed me another bout sheet, for the gold medal bout. This one, I was nervous for. That was the first gold medel bout I had done at an event that big. Actually, I think thats the first gold medal bout I have ever reffed in an open. So I took the bout, with Greg sitting behind me the whole time. It, like the semi, was not close. It was a 15-5 wrecking, but I was happy it went well. Mr. Dilworth said that it wasn't really a hard bout, but the few calls that were there I nailed. So it was good.

As for day 2, I was kinda nervous going in. The mixed foil was a really strong event, an A4. The pool was going very well, when I got a big scare. During an action, a fencer broke his blade, and the broken end went into the wrist of the opponent, and within 5 or so seconds had alot of blood on his jacket. He had to withdraw to go to the hospital, but it seems like he was going to be ok.

The DEs went really well. I went as far up as doing a bout in the round of 8. It was kinda funny that the guy coaching one of the fencers in my bout in the 8, was my highschool fencing team captain. He was also partially the reason I got into fencing to start with. Go figure. Thats sorta a different kind of pressuring a referee. It may not be an FOC coach, but it was still interesting. Either way, it didn't make a difference, and I was still totally impartial.

Overall, I am really happy with it. Its nice that at the same event last year, on day 1 they didn't even let me touch the women's foil, and I was kept on epee all day. Granted I can't blame them, because I was a 9, 9, 10. And exactly 1 year later, I was doing the gold medal bout of the women's foil as a 5, 5, 8...


Thanks for reading...