The University of Cape Town’s (UCT) fencing team emerged victorious at the recent University Sports South Africa (USSA) Fencing Championship, which took place from 4 to 7 December 2018 at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).
This win was, in large part, thanks to the outstanding performances of Giselle Vicatos, Malcolm Hillebrand and Alexander Collings.
Vicatos dominated the women’s events, achieving gold in épée, foil and sabre. In the mixed events, Hillebrand was able to achieve silver in épée and bronze in sabre, while Collings achieved silver in foil.
The UCT Fencing Club took the overall tournament honours ahead of teams from the University of Pretoria, Tshwane University of Technology, the University of the Free State and Wits.
This year’s fencing tournament was well overdue as the last one took place in 2016. As a result, only a handful of participants had experience in competitive fencing.
“Nevertheless, it can be safely said that everyone involved put forth a stellar effort, making this one of the more exciting university fencing meets in recent memory,” said UCT Fencing.
Épée, foil, and sabre events took place on a mixed and women-only basis while on the last day there were mixed-university team competitions for foil and in épée. However, the mixed team competitions did not count toward UCT’s final score.
“UCT Fencing would like to thank Wits Fencing for organising and hosting the tournament, and hopes it is the first of many to come,” said the team.
They also gave special thanks to Daniel Chen, the driving force behind the tournament’s organisation and getting USSA fencing back on track.
“We hope that this is the beginning of a new, prosperous chapter in SA university fencing, and look forward to playing our part in it.”
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