All good things must come to an end and this is also true of The Fencing Podcast. This is our final episode and, in truth, there is very little chat about actual fencing but we hope you enjoy it anyway. Special Thanks: To all of our Patrons and our sponsors Leon Paul. Without your support this podcast would never have been possible. To Michelle Gol…

Gav updates us on his travel plans and his vital contribution to the Games. Kate, Gav and Sean put their heads together to make their predictions for the Tokyo Olympics and find that they are, disconcertingly, often in agreement. We also find that the Prediction Game that we’re playing against each other brings out our worst competitive instincts. …

This week Kate, Sean and Gav look back at their highlights of the Cadet & Junior World Championships in Cairo and look forward to the Olympic zonal qualifiers. Kate and Gav invent ASMR fencing commentary and Sean pays tribute to the late President of British Fencing, Keith Smith. Sean also chats to Johnny Davis, the British team manager, prior to t…

Sean talks a load of foil (Kate and Gav get to chip in occasionally) as the action heads to Doha for the foil Grand Prix. The return of the game (foil, obviously) and while there were a lot of early departures, there were also a lot of familiar faces at the end of the day. Olympic places were decided, some big names miss out. Gav shares some horrif…

In this episode the team discuss a week of epee… well almost. It took several days for the final Epee world cup in Kazan to run! And as you’d expect in this era it was carnage. Gav gets very excited about the mens epee team final, quite right too. Kate even admits she watched some of it! All the videos on the FIE YouTube channel https://www.youtube…

Episode 61: All The Sabre Dudes Kate, Gav and Sean actually have some real, live fencing to talk about!! Budapest saw international fencing return with a men's and women's sabre World Cup and it was glorious. Everything you could have asked for including more Olympic qualification, some surprises, a few absentees, additional face masks and potentia…

Good news! Fencing is back … of sorts. It’s almost a year to the day and so we’ve decided to get the gang back together again. Hurrah. Our lovely sponsors: https://www.leonpaul.com/ Join our equally lovely Patreon supporters: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4988869&fan_landing=true Leon Paul & Brexit: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/17…

The gang are all together again and we’re edging towards the end of the Olympic qualification process which means some fencers will be celebrating guaranteeing their place in Tokyo while others will be heartbroken. Sean tracks the foil action from Cairo (men’s) and Kazan (women’s) as the team places are sorted out for the Olympics and some fencers …

It’s [mostly] epee day here at Podcast towers. Sean & Gav talk about the recent epee competitions: Doha, Barcelona, Vancouver. That’s a lot of epee. The Fencing is great but there’s something bothering both of them, listen and find out what. And then there’s the Turin Grand Prix! Also some interesting stuff in the fencing news, a new film has enter…

It's a bit late but in this episode, Sean and Gav are back from Paris with tales of daring and heroism (not their own). We cover all the action from Katowice (women's foil), Heidenheim (men's epee) and we mull over the results from the impossible to follow women's epee action from Havana. And Kate plays a blinder by being rude to Sean and Gav, insu…

Sean and Gav are in France for their annual pilgrimage to the best World Cup on the planet, the Challenge International de Paris men’s foil (CIP). After a long day of commentary duties for the French Federation, we settle in to the hotel bar with a beer to look back on the day’s action. And it really was an incredible day of fencing. CIP: Day 1 - I…

All the pre-Christmas action from St Maur, Salt Lake City and Tokyo. Sean admits to jealousy as he stayed behind to man the Podcast desks while Kate competed in Salt Lake City while Gav, astonishingly, was tapped to be the hall announcer at the Tokyo World Cup. This event was also the test event for the upcoming Olympic Games next year! Videos of a…

The gang are all together again! We have our first meeting of the Fencing Podcast Book Club with two fine publications to review. Sean has some fatherly words for Cairo following the men’s sabre and women’s foil World Cups held there recently, Gav gets out the spreadsheets to describe men’s epee action from Berne and Kate tells us about what it was…

The 2019/20 season gets under way and Tokyo 2020 is on the horizon! Sean and Gav are back to tell you all about the early-season action from Tallinn and Bonn but where’s Kate?!? Sean describes the joys of being a travelling fencing fan and guest commentator while Gav finds a downside to having a big television. We’re encouraged by a faith in youth.…

The trio sit down and discuss the action from Budapest. Kate updates us on what she did on her holidays and we ponder the phenomenon of “taking the knee”. We also pick our top fencer of the year! Strap yourselves in as we end the season!By The Fencing Podcast

Women’s sabre and men’s foil. Sean and Gav reporting on all the action from Day 3 of the World Championships in Budapest. Gav steps in to report on the sabre action and has two giants of the sport renewing their rivalry. Sean covers the mayhem of the men’s foil and has a good news story for British Fencing and France. The debate over Coolest Fencer…

Individual men's epee and women's foil. Sean and Gav reporting from Budapest with a predictably unpredictable men's epee competition and some giants of the sport in women's foil. Sean was the voice of the fencing telly for some of the time and Gav had a day of bliss. Thanks to our lovely sponsors Leon Paul for getting us here https://www.leonpaul.c…

Welcome to the first finals day from the World Championships in Budapest. Sean and Gav guide you through the action in individual women’s epee and men’s sabre. Surprises, nerves, awesomeness, home crowds and Sean feeling smug about his sabre predictions. Thanks to our lovely sponsors Leon Paul for getting us here https://www.leonpaul.com/ And to ou…

After a technical hitch (no blame attached) which means this episode is quite a bit shorter than originally planned, Sean, Gav and Kate make their predictions for the upcoming World Championships in Budapest. Kate will be there competing, while Sean and Gav will be generally loafing around. Thanks as always to our lovely sponsor: leonpaul.com Becom…

Sean and Gav are joined by a new co-host - GB international sabreur Kate Daykin. Together they look at the end of the regular season from Paris (again), Shanghai, Dubai and Moscow. Sean presents his homage to Deriglazova, Gav reveals his most embarrassing fencing moment and Kate seeks haircare tips from Velikaya. Coolest Fencer on the Planet is mor…

Sean and Gav are live(ish) from Paris where they are both at the Challenge SNCF Reseau. This is the largest Epee event on the calendar and like Paris attracts a fine crowd of local Parisians. This time around we have a guest presenter -Dave Baker, FIE Ref, commision member and all round good aussie bloke. Here us discuss the event from our hotel ba…

Sean and Gav are back to Seniors action as the hectic season continues and Olympic qualification begins. Gav has a moment of revelation while watching the women's epee from Cali, Sean enjoys an oldies get-together in St Petersburg, Gav considers some unpleasant options for funding a trip to the Tokyo Olympics and there is much sabre awesomeness in …

Well, sort-of… We are back from Poland with our feet up, recapping our time in Torun last week. It’s no spoiler to say that we had a tremdendous time in a beautiful city watching one of the best presented Cadet and Junior World Championships they’ve ever seen. This episode covers the last few days and follows on from our last episode. All the actio…

Sean and Gav are in Torun in Poland for the World Cadet and Junior Championships. In this first part we discuss the action from the first five days covering all the sabre events and the foil cadet and junior individuals. Italy and Eastern Europe dominate in sabre, Liza Pusztai redeems herself, Russia rule the roost in men’s foil and Lauren Scruggs …

Welcome to episode 42. How many tournaments can we talk about? Our lovely sponsors - https://www.leonpaul.com/ Become a better person, become a Patreon supporter: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4988869 TONS of action this episode. Let’s start off with a bit of contrition. We missed Barcelona Women’s Epee last episode. it’s so busy at this time of t…

Arianna interviews fencing's most successful and glamorous couple, Olympic men's foil champion Daniele Garozzo and women's foil world champion Alice Volpi. There's been a deluge of action - Warsaw men's sabre, Turin foil Grand Prix, Vancouver men's epee and Cairo sabre Grand Prix. Sean forgets his notes and Gav names his favourite children's televi…

Sean and Gav celebrate the podcast's 40th with a feast of fencing. Tokyo men's foil World Cup in Japan, St Maur women's foil World Cup in France, Salt Lake City women's sabre World Cup in the USA and women's and men's epee Grand Prix from Doha, Qatar. Kruse on top of the world, Borel returns, Estonia in the limelight and the French in fine form aro…

Sean and Gav go to Paris for the Challenge International de Paris and spend all weekend working. While in Paris we met up with the lovely Arianna Scarnecchia of PianetaScherma who have kindly allowed us to share an interview with Race Imboden. While we are in Paris, elsewhere in Europe Heidenheim men's epee was in full swing. It’s a stupidly big co…

We look at the decisions of the FIE Congress (and are appalled), discuss the action from Algiers (Mens Sabre and Womens Foil) and Gav expresses his disappointment with a result that he should love… you’ll have to listen to find out why. Coolest fencer on the planet is a bit of a surprise… no spoilers! Also a large shout out to the returning Mamatle…

Sean and Gav get back into action and take a look at the upcoming FIE Congress. Sean interviews the Chair of the Women & Fencing Council, Dr Stacey Johnson. The season gets underway with the first Senior World Cups from Tallinn (women's epee), Orleans (women's sabre) and Bonn (men's foil). But the interesting question is who will win our much-covet…

Gav and Sean look back on the 2017/18 season and pick out their highlights and star performers. We have some sad news with the passing of several fencing greats in recent weeks. We also look forward to the upcoming season and what will bring a smile to our faces. Gav promises to watch more sabre and makes a confession about his worship of Max. Sean…

Finally! Sorry for the delay Gav moved house, Sean moonlighted as a sports commentator! Our duo look back at the 2018 World Championships from Wuxi, China. We have various grumbles but agree the World Championships were a magnificent event. We cover all the action and offer our usual forthright opinions about who was great, who wasn't and who is th…

In this episode Sean's interviews more of Great Britain's leading foilists. Kate and Alex Beardmore are the sister and brother team that propelled Kate to the top of the British women's foil rankings. Kate has ambitions to reach the very top of international level. We approve! Richard Kruse probably doesn't need an introduction. He is a serial winn…

The dust has settled on the season, the fencers have fought and now it's time for Sean and Gav to sit down and scry what might happen in the World Championships in Wuxi, China. We cast the runes, Gav investigates the gribbly bits of Epee, Sean tries his hand at a bit of Sabre divination. Where the stars in alignment? We'll only know once the World …

It's a bit quiet with season's end and run-up to the Wuxi World Championships. A few weeks ago Sean sent himself to London to visit the Leon Paul Fencing Centre to speak with our lovely sponsors and a few fencers. Ben Paul is one of the Director's of Leon Paul and part of the Paul family. Jon Willis was British Fencing's top Mens Epeeist for many y…

We wrap up the regular season with the action from Madrid* men's sabre World Cup in Madrid, Grand Prix epee from Cali in Colombia and the women's sabre World Cup in Tunis. Gav gets all excited about a new Korean epeeist, another fencer gets added to Sean's list of favourite female sabreurs (if you're not on the list, are you even a female sabreur?)…

We talk about the Moscow Sabre Grand Prix - Queen Velikaya returns and we find out who scares Sean. Gav's been watching the SNCF Reseau men's epee from Paris. Oldies dominate the podium and Sean doesn't feel encouraged to watch the team event. And finally we look at the Shanghai Foil Grand Prix with mixed feelings of joy and inevitability. Gav's pr…

It's episode 29 Sean and Gav discuss names. Specifically Hungarian names.... it seems we get the wrong. To help us all YouTuber CyrusofChaos has produced this helpful video*. Continuing with this theme Gav noticed that French, french grip epee, fencer Laurence Epee. We think she is the most approriately named athlete in the sport. We're struggling …

Welcome to Episode 28. Sean and Gav have a ton of results to get through in this episode. First off thanks to our sponsors over at Leon Paul. This is our first episode with our new recording equipment. You patreons keep everything running too. If you want to join in the fun, follow this link: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4988869 This episode's bi…

Full house in this episode as Gav & Sean catch up on the latest action in all three weapons! We've had some good news. Leon Paul will sponsor us again this year so we're looking at attending a few more events. We're excited and hope you are too! Leon Paul aren't the only cool people out there there's also our patrons. Be cool like them and follow t…

Rejoice! Episode 26 is finally here. Sean and Gav are back after the excitement of Paris with a ton of World Cup action. We interview fellow podcaster Kate Sierra (Of The Sabre Coach Kate Podcast). From the CIP we reflect on Garozzo making friends with the locals while USA juggernaut marches on. In Womens Foil Deriglazova hands out a thumping (and …

We were in Paris for last weekend our yearly trip the Paris Challenge International de Paris. For us the action started on Friday morning when Sean was on site for initial the phases of the tournament. He also managed to sit down with Enzo Lefort, Alex Massialas and Ben Paul from Leon Paul. After surviving Parisian traffic, Gav trundled into town w…

Welcome to Episode 24. It's all go in fencing with the Grand Prix season fully under way. But first a little news. If you are at all aware of the latest sporting news you might have heard that Russia has been banned from the upcoming Winter Olympic games. Following the announcement the FIE President has released a letter to the IOC expressing his i…

Welcome to Episode 23. We discuss Ibtihaj Muhammad's new barbie (great news) and Gav mentions a book of stories for young girls. Sean has another suggestion for the "boring epee" problem. And we pick our first Coolest Fencer on the Planet! We catch up with all of the results. Footage was hard to find his time around, more on that in the podcas, res…

It feels like an age since we last recorded but here we are, it's a new fencing season and a new episode to go with it. We apologise for the delay, there's been some unavoidable production delays. Sean and Gav have a lot to go over: Women's Epee action in Tallin, Women's Foil action, Berne Mens Epee and Women's Sabre from Orleans (featuring chocola…

It's been ann amazing year. If you'd asked us at the start we wouldn't have predicted that we'd have amazing patrons, an amazing sponsor in Leon Paul and have an amazing time time at the World Championships. That's a lot of amazing. No one could predict that Sean would become Sabre's number 1 fan, Gav would sing the praises of Womens Foil or that b…

Sean and Gav are back from Leipzig and have to watch the team events on youtube. Listen to them discuss what the highs and lows of the team events. Sean asks Gav a question: there is much consternation. This is the last episode of this first season. We hope you enjoyed it. Please let us know what you think. As ever we are grateful to the fine peopl…

Our final day from piste-side at the Leipzig World Championships. Unfortunately Gav has had to return to Scotland and that means you're only hearing from Sean today. Today's events were the Mens Foil and Womens Epee. It's been an eventful day. Describing the Epee as a "standard epee tournament" was even more understated than usual. And shocks, shoc…

Day two of Sean and Gav’s jaunt to Germany for the World Championships. And we're both happy. Gav gets to watch epee all day while Sean gets his first taste of live world class women’s sabre since his conversion. The Leipzig Arena remains hot and humid and a late night of editing episode 17 means both Sean and Gav are struggling a bit. Thankfully t…

It's fair to say that we had a horrible trip to Leipzig. Through delays and transfers a journey should have taken a few hours ballooned out into 14. Nevertheless we got to Leipzig although we missed our first day. So here's our part 1, from Germany. Today's delights are Women's Foil and Men's Sabre. There's been quite a few upsets and shocks. Sean …