Extra special with Julia at stripside to watch me fence. My chance to model behaviour, win or loose.

Seeded 19th of 58 going in. Went 5-1, +10 after pool, seeding 7th headed in to DEs with a bye. Won my first DE to make the 16 by a tight margin, on a final fleche in preparation to win. Exciting. Then lost 10-6 in the 16 to miss finals and a medal. Ended 6-2, +5. K was pleased, and Julia found it thrilling to watch her dad fence. There were some close bouts, overtime bouts where my opponent had priority, and I won. So that's good.

Finished 10th overall.

What worked, what didn't and why? K felt that I picked up the tempo of my opponents and attacked in tempo to score. I've felt the ability to do this for some time, espy when my game is 'on', and I'm relaxed but competitively energized. My actions on the whole, were simple single action attacks, with my lunge deep and long available to reach targets in longer range. That speaks well to my sense of distance, timing and general condition. Though I do feel that I carried about 2-3 lbs extra weight into the comp., which tends to slow me down. A little bit of weight makes a noticable difference in my strip stamina, and ability to change tempos. I lost one pool bout 5-3, after leading 3-1, and am sorry for that, espy since it was the guy that won the competition that day (he and I were tied in the pool for 1st at 5-1, +10, but he had more touches given, so edged me out in the seeding going into the DEs). He was the most talented fencer in our pool but not beyond me. I hit him with a straight attack in tempo for touch 1. Then a really well timed redoublement to the chest for the second touch. The third touche was a fluke: I fleched in tempo on his attack to my leg, and nailed it, burrying my weapon into his chest, but the light never went off! It was as if the foible flexed down, and instead of the point hitting, the foil bended. Next, I seem to recall, he went for a very hard toe touch, and his point rocketed into the strip. It might have grazed my shin, but mostly seemed like an invalid touch, thinking there was a rust spot or ungrounded spot somewhere on the strip. Anyway, he and I checked the stip in front of the director, and the touch was awarded. I think that rattled me. The rest of the bout is a bit of a blur but I think we doubled once, then he must have gotten the final touch, which I think was a flick to the forearm, actually a pretty good flick.

My DE loss was different: in essence, it should have been fenced as a total scrap, using distance, and tight disengages to gain a touch or two, then a counter-attack defence. Instead I attacked, adopting a tactic suggested by K, essentially a second intention false attack to the low line followed by an immediate close in deep 4, riposte to the body. I think I did this once, after the first break, and he came around my four, and on the second, my weapon was on his shoulder, off target. But I rushed, and felt fatigued, and didn't really organize my preparation after that, giving him some easy counter-attack fleche in tempo touches, which I didn't pick up. He fenced gamely, competitively, and with good aggression. I might have preferred another fencer in the 16, and him in the finals, but that's the hand I was delt. I did stay to watch him get knocked out in the 8, but only by a touch or two. His opponent was using much more of the strip, pushing, and pulling, and making aggressive attacks, real and feints, to his shoulder. He seemed dug-in, and not really able to reply to this bout plan. Might have been a better bout than the finals, though did see Skopic beat Eli by a touche in OT, with what seemed like a counter-time hit to low line. Looked premediated, so have to tip my hat. Was a good touche.