First and foremost, big congratulations goes to my student Ted Vinnitchouk for winning a gold medal for U20 event at the Pan American Championships!

This marks as Ted’s best result of his fencing career and it is a very cherished one especially if we consider the fact that he is ONLY 16 years old!!!

Throughout the competition Ted showed prowess and determination to be the best on that day. The tournament began with him winning all of his poule bouts and then he never looked back.

In all fairness, though, in the final match for the gold medal against Brazilian’s top swordsman it all seemed like the golden run may come to an end short of the goal. As the bout went on, Ted has found himself being down 12-14 to a fencer who at that time was ranked top 5 in the world. But with the strike of confidence, focus and the help of National Team coach he was able to gather himself up and tied up the score. Once the score was tied the momentum has shifted in our favour and with no time to waste Ted made a deceitful successful attack to the toe for the title of the best U20 fencer in the Americas!

Once again huge congratulations to Ted and his mom who is always there providing her enormous support for her son!

We are all very proud of you Ted! Keep up the good work, but don’t get too carried away as the job is still not complete 😉

Next up is the World Championships this April in Poland.

Other notable result is Jason Li who finished top 16 at the U17 event and unfortunately just missed the World Team by a couple of points. Jason is one of the most hardworking kids we have at the Toronto Fencing Club and rest assured his golden time is still ahead of him. Keep your chin up Jason, we will eventually break through this WALL!