Chen, 14, captures Condon fencing title

February 25, 2008

By Mike Pizzolato

LeAnn Moore, left, of Bossier City, and Evelyn Scarborough, of Shreveport,

battle it out during a fencing tournament Sunday morning at Bossier Civic

Center in Bossier City.                                    Photos by Val Horvath
                                                                

Special to The Times
The eighth annual Rose Condon Memorial Fencing Tournament wrapped up on Sunday with its annual awards ceremony.

Rodney Chen, of Dallas, with his mother, father and brother watching, took the men's foil open division.

Fencing has been described as a mental game of discipline and patience, and the 14-year old Chen shook off his nerves against older, more physical opponents to win his division and renew his rating, working up until the very last touch over 10 matches in one day's work on Sunday.

The fencer with five touches or the lead at 3 minutes wins the match. Fencers then move on to direct eliminations, three 15-touch bouts of 3-minute rounds.

"I was real excited," Chen said. "I was real nervous up to the end, the last touch, and then I was not nervous any more."

Chen, of the Fencing Institute of Texas in the North Texas Division, will move on from the Condon event to the Regional Youth Cup, to be held in Houston in the next few weeks.

"I really like fencing," Chen added, "and when I started, it just sort of pulled me in."

His teammate, Shalyn Shourds of Arlington, Texas, has been fencing for 16 years. Shourds tied for third in the men's foil, losing a match to Chen in the process, which did not dampen his affection for the Condon tourney.

"I always come here," Shourds said. "It's a really serious tournament, and it's really competitive where we all fence and still have a good time."

The tournament added a new twist this year, the mixed wheelchair epee event. An epee is a fencing weapon with a depressed point, slightly heavier than a foil. The fencers in this mixed-gender division faced off in close quarters, wheelchair-to-wheelchair.

Placing in the top three respectively were Gary Van Der Wege of the All Texas Athletic Center, Susan Gilmore of the Redlands Fencing Center in Oklahoma, and Joseph Brinson of Central Mississippi Fencing of the Ark-La-Miss division, who tied for third with his teammate Robert Donerson.

©The Times

February 25, 2008