Blog
Kerr Hutchinson finished 6th at the 2011 Cadet World Fencing Championships in Jordan on March 31st. Fencing in his first ever competition outside North America, Kerr proved with this result that he is among the very best epeeists in the world in his age group. After winning 4 of 6 bouts in his first round pool, he found himself ranked 20th overall. In the direct elimination rounds, he came back from a 14-12 deficit to defeat Zoa De Wijn of The Netherlands 15-14 to advance to the top 32. His next opponent was 8th ranked Raymond Schorr of the US, who he eliminated by a score of 15-12. In his next match in the top 16 against 9th ranked Konstantin Nemtryev of Russia, he overcame a 6-1 first period deficit to win 15-12. His final match of the day came in the quarterfinals against #1 ranked Gabriele Cimini of Italy. Kerr put up a good fight, but fell 15-9 to the Italian who would go on to win the bronze. Kerr’s 6th place finish was the best Canadian individual result at this year’s world championships. He was also the only fencer from outside Europe to finish in the top 8.
Teammate Natasha Grodzinski, who was also making her World Championships debut, competed in the cadet women’s sabre event, finishing 45th overall.
Kerr Hutchinson & Natasha Grodzinski, the first Kingston fencers to represent Canada at a world championships, will both compete on Wednesday March 30 at the Cadet/Junior World Championships in Amman Jordan. You can follow their progress online at http://www.deadsea2011.com/. Kerr will compete in Cadet Men’s Epee & Natasha in Cadet Women’s Sabre & Coach David will be there to support them. Good luck to both. The members of Cutting Edge Fencing & the RMC varsity fencing teams are very proud of you!
Natasha Grodzinski was named to the Canadian team that will compete at the 2011 Cadet World Fencing Championships in Jordan. Natasha will fence in the cadet women’s sabre event scheduled for March 30.
Four athletes from Cutting Edge Fencing are among the 22 athletes selected by the Ontario Fencing Association to receive Quest for Gold Funding this year. Becca Howes & Katie Porter have both qualified for Junior cards, while Kerr Hutchinson & Natasha Grodzinski have qualified for Youth cards. This funding will assist our athletes greatly in their athletic careers
Kerr Hutchinson finished 9th in the cadet men’s epee event at the Dallas North American Cup on Saturday January 15th to secure his spot for the 2011 Cadet World Championships to be held at the end of March in Jordan. Congratulations to Kerr, the first fencer from Cutting Edge and Kingston to qualify for a world championships.
16 year old Kerr Hutchinson is now one step closer to his goal of fencing at the world championships, after posting the top canadian results at his first international competition of the season in Milwaukee this weekend. Hutchinson began the competition fencing in the junior (under-20) men’s epee event at the North American Cup on Friday where he finished the first round of five-hit bouts with five wins and only one loss. He then fought his way through four rounds of 15 hit direct elimination bouts to finish a very impressive 17th out of 205 competitors, the only Canadian fencer in his age group to advance to the top-32 of the junior event. Hutchinson then followed up this performance with an even better result on Sunday in his own age group in cadet (under-17) men’s epee. Winning all six of his first round bouts, he was ranked 5th heading into the direct elimination rounds. He then fought through nine rounds of direct elimination bouts to finish with a well-deserved bronze medal out of 167 competitors after losing 15-11 to gold medalist Marc-Antoine Blais-Belanger from Montreal in the semi-finals. With these two results, Hutchinson is now ranked number one in Canada in cadet men’s epee and is the only Canadian to have achieved the selection criteria for the 2011 Cadet/junior World Championships, which will take place in Mer Morte Jordan next April. There is only one more Canadian competition in Richmond BC in January and one more North American Cup in Dallas remaining, after which the national teams for world championships will be named.
Also competing this weekend were Cutting Edge teammates Natasha Grodzinski & Becca Howes. Grodzinski was the second highest ranked Canadian in cadet women’s sabre, placing a very respectable 39th, while Howes had the third best Canadian result in the junior women’s sabre event, finishing 45th.
Cutting Edge fencers brought home 4 medals from the 2010 Brock Open. Becca Howes won gold in junior women’s sabre. Coach David Howes took the gold in veterans men’s epee and Celeste Suart took silver in bothe junior & cadet women’s sabre.
Congratulations to the following Cutting Edge Fencing athletes for their results at CSC#1/Senior Nationals in Gatineau:
Kerr Hutchinson – silver in Cadet Men’s Epee, 13th in Junior & 16th in Senior
Katie Porter – bronze in Junior Women’s Sabre & 8th in Senior
Chantel Helwer – 5th in Senior Women’s Sabre
Natasha Grodzinski – 7th in Cadet Women’s Sabre & 11th in Junior
Becca Howes – 8th in Junior Women’s Sabre
Celeste Suart – 10th in Cadet Women’s Sabre
Alex Whitehead – 18th in Junior Men’s Sabre
All of our introductory programs including Mini-Musketeers, Youth Learn to Fence & Adult Learn to Fence begin this week. You can register online or at the first class.
Congratulations to all the Cutting Edge athletes who brought home medals from Sudbury including Kerr & Natasha (individual gold), David & Madi (individual silver), & Celeste (individual bronze), as well as the 11 team medals won by all of the above fencers as well as Bram, Peter & Sam!
