Swift Current fencers earn impressive number of provincial awards

The Swift Current Fencing Club brought home an impressive line-up of awards at the Saskatchewan Fencing Association Virtual Awards Night, held on December 5.

This is the second year in a row that Swift Current fencers have swept the awards, claiming the top provincial spots in many categories. These awards acknowledged first-place rankings for the 2019-2020 provincial season. Fencers receiving awards were:

Dane Block – U13 Men’s Foil

Taylor Collier – Cadet Women’s Foil

Lesley Levorson-Wong – double awards for both Cadet Women’s Epée and Junior Women’s Epée

Lauren Block – Junior Women’s Foil

Lisa Hagen – Open Women’s Foil

The season was cut short last Spring due to the COVID19 shut-down, but Saskatchewan fencers were able to attend all tournaments except one. The SFA Executive decided to continue with the provincial awards based on rankings to-date, and held the Awards Ceremony online.

“I am very proud of the hard work all our fencers put in throughout the past season,” said coach, Lisa Hagen. “Their awards are the result of those efforts.” 

Swift Current Fencing Club was founded in 2004 by Hagen. Fencing is a fast-paced sport based on the ancient art of sword fighting. Fencing is one of the five sports that have consistently been in the Olympic Games since 1896. Modern fencing is a safe and fun sport, requiring endurance, strategy, and speed. The Swift Current Club is currently continuing training with online Zoom classes to work on footwork, target practice and tournament rules. 

Club President, Barb Levorson, said, “We knew at the beginning of the season that competitions would likely be minimal, so we focused our efforts to make this year a skill building year. When we had in-person classes, we implemented the national Arm Band program which is a progressive skill-based development program, and we are building target practices for fencers to have for home-based training.” Currently, fencing Zoom classes are available to fencers across the province, and have included guests such as the Saskatchewan Provincial coach and members of the senior national women’s foil team.

“We are looking forward being able to train in-person again, but we are grateful for the technology to continue working on skill development,” said Levorson.