WAIS athlete Sutherlan Scudds has dominated the national fencing championships in Canberra to take the men’s open sabre title.
The WAIS Individual Athlete Support Program scholarship holder won his first national title since 2010, and backed that performance up by captaining Western Australia to the team title, which was WA’s first ever national crown in open category competition.
Scudds’ success in the sabre competition also saw the 22 year-old reclaim the number one ranking in Australia and ensured the Fremantle resident will represent Australia at next year’s World Fencing Championships in Hungary.
The dual national champion began his title run with a tight 5-3 win over Australian Under 20 champion Jasper Rowley. Scudds then progressed through the direct elimination round via a 15-11 win over former national champion Simon Leitch of Queensland.
Despite possessing a strong repertoire, Scudds opted for a simplistic approach in his second round win.
“The match started off closely as we went hit for hit, but I held an 8-5 lead at the halfway break fencing very simply,” Scudds explained. “I was winning with athletic strength and power more-so than technique, using primarily attacks as opposed to defence.”
“I knew that I could fence with more variety, but decided to keep the match simple as I was winning with that method.”
The victory over the former title holder clearly created a strong sense of confidence for Scudds, who dismantled fellow Australian teammate Frederic Jaccard 15-6, after racing to an 8-1 lead in the initial stages of their semi-final.
The final followed a similar script for Scudds, after he again burst from the blocks to take an 8-2 lead in his final against NSW fencer Adam Wilcock. Scudds would eventually claim the title 15-7, which he put down to limiting his opponent’s strengths.
“I trained a lot with him over the last two years while I was living in Sydney and was confident going into the match,” he said.
“I started the match well and never allowed him to fire up, which was important because he is a strong fencer when he has momentum.”
Scudds and his Western Australian teammates created another slice of history by claiming the team competition, after defeating NSW 45-33 in the final.
An earlier team win in club competition proved the catalyst for their success.
“Our Fremantle Based Excalibur Fencing Club had won the earlier National Club Championship in August against the University of NSW, which comprised most of the NSW members we faced,” he said.
“I won our first match 5-1 against Adam Wilcock in a rematch of the individual final, before our vice-captain Zac Leonard fenced brilliantly to defeat NSW captain Jasper Rowley 5-0. This gave us a 30-20 lead and in the final match I went in with a comfortable 40-32 lead after good matches from Andrew Scott and Jadryn Dick.”
Scudds said that with 2013 beginning the next Olympic cycle, the next 12 months would primarily be based training, but he will compete both the 2013 World University Games in Russia and the World Fencing Championships in Hungary.
