A rejuvenated Fencing South team came home with a bag full of medals from the New Zealand championships recently.
The standout performance in Christchurch came in the women's individual foil. Fiona McDonald won the silver medal and Rachel Rowlands the bronze. McDonald also won the New Zealand Cup for the women's foil.
The gold medal was won by Yuan Ping (Central), who was a member of the Chinese national team before moving to New Zealand.
Fencing was not a sport at the Delhi Commonwealth Games but it could be on the list in Glasgow in 2014.
At the last Commonwealth fencing championships, Ping won the gold medal.
The performance by the Otago women against a world-class opponent impressed Otago coach Dave Barson.
"Otago fencing was in decline 10 years ago and we are rebuilding it from the grassroots," he said. "We had 13 fencers at the championships and it was our biggest team for some time.
"We have a dedicated group and they work well together." The Fencing South women's A foil team, comprising McDonald, Rowlands and Vanda Symon, was leading the gold medal match against Central when Symon ruptured her Achilles tendon.
The team was forced to withdraw and had to be satisfied with the silver medal.
The B team of Olive Butler, Fi McMillan, Pippy Miller and Heather Bauchop performed above expectations when it finished third. It was unusual in that it was made up of two mother-daughter combinations.
Butler is the daughter of McMillan, and Miller the daughter of Bauchop.
Fencing South's men's foil team of Finn Butler, Jared Howlett, Jason Sim and David Solin was third. Otago's only gold medal was won by Queen's High School pupil Lisa Goral (15) in the women's sabre. She also won the New Zealand Cup.
A profile of Goral will appear in Wednesday's secondary sports page.
