A New Story

Since I last updated this blog I have completed a training week in Madrid, had two weeks at home preparing for the Warsaw Grand Prix, competed at the Warsaw Grand Prix and subsequently the Hertfordshire Open.  Time is flying by. The last four weeks have been an absolute blur and my daily routine has been a little like this: wake up, eat, train, eat, sleep, train, eat, sleep, eat, train, eat, and sleep.  Or at least it was last week when a member of the French team came to train with us at our club to give us the intense and high level standard of training we need in order to succeed in these qualifying events. I have a feeling the next 408 days until the Olympic fencing commences at the Excel Centre are going to follow a similar pattern.  

Varsovie GP 

So, the Warsaw Grand Prix; yet another mixed bag for me.  I actually fenced very well when I chose to fence. Unfortunately, during the first three fights of my poule I tried to fight in the middle of the piste, not using the full 14 metres available to me, and thus played a game of chance rather than grabbing hold of the match and taking control.  Another early exit to the competition, eliminated after the poule stages with only one victory to my name, albeit with a much improved performance in the latter three fights, including a 5-4 defeat.  However, it is a tale similar to one I have told in this blog a number of times now and I can't have it any more. Thus I will head to New York in a week determined to write a new story in my next blog. 

Hertfordshire Open

In my calendar as a training competition, an opportunity to spar with a number of different people, try some things out and hopefully at the same time do well and amass some UK ranking points.  Looking back on the competition I do not actually believe I fenced all that well, however, one important positive to take out of the event was the number of fights I was able to win and grind out the required results, some more convincingly than others.  That said, I only really underperformed in one fight; the final.  Having got to the final, fencing through a field that included 6 of the UK top 12 or half our world cup team, I fenced a club mate and went 8-0 down at half time.  This has never happened to me before and was a bit of a shock as my mind had gone completely blank.  I managed to fight back strongly in a determined and spirited second half but the damage was already done and in retrospect too much to overcome.  Thus I left the competition in a mixed mood, extremely disappointed and angry with myself over my performance in the final, but satisfied with the day's work, outcome and having enjoyed the competition (credit here should go to the organisers who did a great job).  And furthermore, fortified with some extra competition experience, and knowledge of what I need to work on between now and New York.  

This season I have only two more events currently in my calendar.  The Newcastle European Satellite Event this weekend and the New York World Cup the following weekend.  Next time I will be writing a New Story.  

en España

Another Olympic Qualifier, another record: 196 competitors.  At the elite level, that means its pretty tough.  I think everyone has been surprised at how large the fields have been since qualification started, and despite the notable absence of the Georgians, Kazakhstanis and Greeks the competition was still pushing 200.  That meant for the second competition in a row, 26 poules in 3 waves.  This time, it was poule 18 and second wave for me.  Although the poules and schedule are published the night before it is always difficult to judge precisely when you will start fencing, often you are faced with the necessity of getting the bus from the hotel a little too early in order not to leave too little time to warm up properly, and, if you are not fencing in the first wave, you most likely face a battle for space in which to warm up.  In Madrid, for I think the first time ever, my warm up, including fencing, took place entirely outside. 

Unfortunately on the day of the competition I was struck down with food poisoning, and even now I am not sure of the cause, perhaps from the sandwiches I ate on the plane, perhaps from the hotel food the night before, or perhaps from the water.  To my memory I have never suffered food poisoning before, and I had a pretty horrific experience on Friday and know that I never want to suffer from it again - especially when I am fencing.  The illness left me very uncomfortable, sapping my strength and leaving me short of breath.  Having said that, I fenced much better than I have done in the competitions since Budapest.  I won two fights convincingly in my poule, but suffered my third painful loss of the season to the Brazilian, Agresta, who lives and trains in Italy (14-15 in the last 96 in Budapest, 3-5 in Athens, and 4-5 here in Madrid), squandering a winning position.  My good indicator after the poules ensured I comfortably made the cut, which actually proved to be a lot less brutal than the previous weekend in Athens, and was drawn in the 128 with the Belarusian, Alexander Buikevich.  

Buikevich, European Champion in 2008, has an usual and languid style, but having fenced and beaten him at the training camp in Almeria over Easter I knew I had a fair chance of proceeding.  He immediately got a couple of hits up and unfortunately that margin remained throughout the rest of the fight, my conditioning on the day fading as I was not able to put in the work required to win hit after hit.  So disappointed with defeat, but not too downhearted considering the circumstances of the day, I can look forward to fencing in Warsaw without the debilitating food poisoning. 

After the competition five of us have stayed out in Madrid for a week's training with the Spanish national team.  The facilities they train in are amazing.  The venue, INEF, is the centralised home to most of the Spanish Olympic teams, located on the site of Madrid University.  The complex has specialised facilities for all the sports located in the main building, including a state of the art fencing salle on the basement level.  It is great to have the possibility of using facilities such as these and to take advantage of the week out here, trying to make the small improvements demanded of us to qualify, and in time for the next event.

The Road to Qualification

I can't believe it has been a month since my last update. I guess I've been pretty busy and not at home much in that time.  Our qualification cycle started the day after the Olympic ticket window closed.  That day we were on a plane to Athens for the first competition counting towards selection: the Coupe d'Acropolis held in the Athens Olympic Park. 

I was feeling in pretty good shape prior to the competition having completed ten days of intensive but fun and rewarding training with the Spanish and Belarusian teams in southern Spain, and on the back of a third place finish at the Birmingham International the previous weekend.  There have been record fields at the World Cup competitions this year so we went expecting a large and tough competition with perhaps as many as 165 entrants.  There were 196. I was in poule 26 in the third wave.  70 athletes missed the cut, including myself and unfortunately none of the British team made the last 96.  It was strange to think that after that first day nearly 3/4 of the field were sitting in their hotel rooms unhappy at their result, again including myself.  Next time it will be more of the same, only I hope to be in that other quarter. 

I recently read a great article on the BBC Sport Website concerning Judd Trump's achievements at the Crucible in the recent Snooker World Championships.  The article deviates to discuss the existence and idea of talent.  Matthew Syed has taken the unusual argument that talent is false and instead greatness is built on hard work.  I certainly agree that the greatest players are often the ones who have worked the hardest. Success is never easy in any walk of life.  Watching Federer at his best play tennis is effortless; the same as Messi playing football, but each has put in thousands of hours of practice wanting to be the best that they can be and ultimately the best in the world.  

It is up to me to work as hard as I can, to realise my 'potential for excellence' and to persevere when things do not quite pan out as I would like.  Success is built and realised over time.  Without putting in the hours you cannot qualify for the Olympic Games, you have to want it, to believe it and work hard for it.  Between now and Madrid, you'll find me at training.