Members of the St. Paul Fencing Club Junior Squad achieved good results in the Ludwig Meider ?Open (Ingolstadt, Bavaria) considering they were amongst the youngest participants at the tournament.

The versatile young team and group leaders Juan Formosa and Ivan Vassallo participated in all three fencing ‘weapons??the foil, epee and saber in order to maximise the experience gained from such a tournament.

The best overall result was accomplished by Pierre Bianchi at foil who broke into the last eight after a decisive 15-8 win against the top-ranked German fencer. Regretfully, Bianchi had to retire from the competition, during the quarter-finals, owing to a thigh injury.

The next best placed Maltese fencer was Andre Zahra who finished in the 14th position. Zahra, taking part in his first ever international epee also managed a merit 16th place at this weapon out of 48 competitors.

Paul Borg and Kurt Mifsud were ranked at the middle of the tableau at foil while Chris Busuttil succeeded in entering the second round by winning a first DE (Direct Elimination).

The results of the SPFC team were satisfactory in all three weapons with all members winning bouts at some stage of the competition.

The tournament was attended mainly by German and Austrian fencers as well as individuals from the Czech and Slovak Republic.

The ‘Malta-Open?held in June every year was promoted in Ingolstadt and several clubs showed interest in visiting Malta later this year.

The SPFC is meanwhile working on promoting epee amongst Women in Malta and is launching a beginner’s scheme, comprising a short course and competition with attractive prizes.

Information may be obtained from the Club Director on Tel. no. 21486641, 79994622.