Today, in Mens Foil, having been seeded 96 after the first round pool, Brendan Cusack bowed out in the 1st round of DE when he was narrowly beaten (15/13) by 97th seed Venezuelan Rodriguez. In the first round pool, he had 3V (against Szeki (HUN), Pachon (COL) and Ongnam (IND) and 3D (against Kamoun (TUN), Arizaga (MEX) and Zhang (CHN). His final placing was 97 out of 156 fencers.

Nuala McGarrity, Catania

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Five Nations team for the 5th November in Cardiff

MF	ME	MS	WF	WE	WS
Conor Nagle ©	Colm Flynn ©	Stephen Concannon ©	Anna Smith ©	Miriam Cashman ©	Aoife O'Loughlin ©
Fergal Martin	K Halloran	Jack McHugh	Victoria Duxbury	Charlotte McEnery	Liz Fitzgerald
Chris Cooke	Matthew Tracey	Chris Mills	Sarah Steacy	Jacinta Clair	Alex Lolies
Kevin Maher	Rory Greenan	John McCabe	Jenny Jennings		Helen Naddy

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An all-weapon training camp has been organised for the weekend 29/30 October in Dublin. Coaches are: Tristan Parris (foil), Octavian Zidaru (epee) Emilian Nuta (sabre). This is a fantastic opportunity to get some solid training early in the season. Further details re venue, timings etc. to be confirmed, but to ensure your place please book early.

Please email: to secure your place

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Our last event the Mens Foil Team event took place Sunday 17 July. Conor Nagle (Captain), David Alexander and Brendan Cusack first met the 2nd seed Russia and acquitted themselves respectably against such a strong team with a score of 21/45. They then met Ukraine and led comfortably until the 7th match when the Ukraine team turned the tables by increasing their score from 20 to 35, thus deflating our team who finished 37/45. Our third and final match was against Croatia where we finished 30/45. Our fencers all worked well together as a team and are looking forward to continuing the team effort next season.

Nuala McGarrity, Team Manager

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Today in Mens Sabre, Stephen Concannon and Owen McNamee were placed 50th and 58th respectively out of 61 fencers, when they exited the competition at the pool stage. Stephen had one victory where he defeated Alex O'Connell GBR. Owen had several close matches where he lost 5/4.

We are now looking forward to tomorrow when our Mens Foil team of David Alexander, Brendan Cusack and Conor Nagle will have strong opposition in their first match against no. 2 seeded Russia.

Nuala McGarrity in Sheffield

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Today, Brendan Cusack in Mens Foil reached top-16 at the European Championships. Having had 3 victories in the first round pool he was seeded no. 41 going into the Direct Elimination where he first defeated Hinterseer of Austria and then Mazza of Hungary before going out to Cheremisinov of Russia (FIE rank 19) in a very entertaining match. Brendan has chalked up a cool 12 World Cup points for this tremendous effort.

Conor Nagle and David Alexander disappointingly did not progress through the pool round. However, David Alexander had the match of his life when he defeated Baldini of Italy the World No. 2 by 5-1 being the only match Baldini lost until he was defeated in the semi-final by his team-mate Cassara who was in turn defeated in the final by the third Italian finalist Avolo. The other semi-finalist was Cheremisinov who defeated Brendan.

Tomorrow Andrew Fenwick will compete in Mens Epee, and Owen McNamee and Stephen Concannon will compete on Saturday in Mens Sabre, followed by the the Mens Foil Team Event on Sunday.

Nuala McGarrity in Sheffield

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Today, Andrew Fenwick had an excellent result when he progressed to the top-64 in the Mens Epee. In the first round pool, he had 2 victories against Mathe of Austria and Petrovski of Macedonia, ending up being seeded 72 after the pools out of 103 fencers. In his first DE match he defeated Tulen of Netherlands before going out in the top-64 to the former World champion Tagliariol of Italy His final placing was 62nd. Andrew has spent the last month training in Estonia which obviously gave him the required result.

We are now looking forward to Mens Sabre tomorrow

Nuala McGarrity in Sheffield

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Thanks to a personal pledge secured by our President, Tom Rafter, the Federation is in a position to assist ambitious young fencers willing to travel overseas for suitable training camps.

There will be a total of €3,000 available per annum from the Federation on the basis of the fencers travelling spending at least €1,500 themselves. The Federation's contribution is being funded 50/50 between the donor and our own resources.

The number of fencers supported in this fashion will depend on the quality of the applications and their suitability. The applications will be adjudicated upon by the Selectors, but we would envisage that we could assist about five such fencers.

If you would like to be considered for this funding, please fill in the following PDF, FundingApplication.pdf, and return the IFF at the address on the left along with any supporting documentation, or fill in our on-line form.

Closing date for applications: 28th June 2011

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Name	Weapon
Conor Nagle	Mens Foil Individual & Team
Brendan Cusack	Mens Foil Individual & Team
David Alexander	Mens Foil Individual & Team
Andrew Fenwick	Mens Epee Individual
Owen McNamee	Mens Sabre Individual
Stephen Concannon (new)	Mens Sabre Individual

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News from Junior World Championships, Jordan - Today Brendan Cusack finished in the top-32 out of a total of 126 fencers in Mens Foil. Having defeated Sanita of Germany in the 64, Brendan exited at the 32 stage when he was beaten by New York clubmate Ormirod.

Nuala McGarrity Dead Sea, Jordan 3 April 2011

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On Saturday 18 February, Brendan Cusack , the Irish Open Champion, achieved a Bronze Medal at World Cup at Aix-en-Provence, France. He was narrowly beaten in semi-final bout by Daniele Garozzo of Italy who went on to defeat his team-mate Lorenzo Nista in the final. Brendan has thus increased his Junior World Ranking to 33 (from previous 73), going into the forthcoming Junior World Championships in Jordan.

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The results of the recent Merseyside Open which was supported by a good contingent of Irish fencers can be found on the MOFT 2011 website below.

http://www.moft.co.uk/

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Hi Everyone

Due to UCD closing today until further notice, we have had to arrange an alternative venue. We were very lucky to get

• RDS Concert Hall
  Ballsbridge
  Dublin 4

Competition will go ahead exactly as planned, except in new venue.

Look forward to having a great weekend, despite the difficulties.

Regards

Nuala McGarrity
Hon Sec, IFF

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