Before entering the busy season of exams, the University of Toronto Varsity Blues fencers competed in one final team tournament at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont. and were fortunate enough to bring home some fantastic results with which to wrap up 2009.

The Brock Open has traditionally been a challenging competition for athletes, ranging from beginners to the top-ranked fencers in the country. The Blues, nevertheless, managed to dominate in several events, including men’s foil, men’s sabre and women’s sabre.

Kamil Karbonowski (Milton, Ont.) walked away with gold in men’s foil after an intense 15-14 fight to the finish, while Matt Davies also finished sixth in the pool of 57 fencers.

In men’s sabre, Blues fencer Eric Ng claimed the bronze medal and Gordon Geringas fenced his way to sixth place. Varsity teammates Sukhveer Matharu, Chacho Rodriguez and Akash Toprani (Vancouver, B.C.) also ranked within the top 16 in a pool of 50 athletes.

In women’s sabre, Alison Doyle (Troy, N.Y.) claimed Toronto’s second bronze of the day, while Jo Jo Leung (Winterton, Ont.) and Kristina Han (Burlington, Ont.) finished tied for fifth. Similarly, U of T’s Jodi Marr (Wainfleet, Ont.) took home the bronze medal in the women’s foil, while Mandy Lau also placed fifth. 

This week, a number of our top-ranked athletes will be travelling to Ottawa to compete in the Canadian national championship, running from Thursday-Sunday (Nov. 26-29).

For more information, scores and highlights on your favourite Toronto teams, please visit the home of the Varsity Blues at http://www.varsityblues.ca.