WAIS Scholarship holder Sutherlan Scudds is holding Australia’s hopes in the 2011 Asian Fencing Championships in Seoul, Korea this month.
Scudds is the countries’ number-one men’s sabre fencer and has been since April last year.
He heads to Korea in strong form, after winning the 2011 Australian Fencing Federation Nationals in Adelaide.
The 20-year-old cruised through the opening rounds before meeting the challenges of Australian teammates Mitchell Fox and James Walsh.
In a first to 15-bout, Sutherlan allowed Fox just two-points in the semi-final to take it out 15-2.
Up against Walsh in the final, he found himself down and facing defeat for the first time in the competition.
“It was clear that I had spent too much energy and after making some simple mistakes I found myself down 14-11,” Scudds said.
“One nice hit to get me to 12 gave me the inspiration and belief needed to win.
“With the belief and a small technique changed for the final few hits, I ended upwinning.”
Scudds said it’s an interesting experience facing up against Walsh in the majority of national competitions.
“I guess it’s pretty weird competing against your best mate in a final like this, I’m pretty used to it though as we compete against each other quite a lot,” he said.
The Asian Champs provide an important moment for Scudds as they offer double ranking points which are crucial to potential Olympic qualification.
They are second to just the World Championships and offer Sutherlan, currently ranked at around 150 in the world, the opportunity to move up the world rankings without European, American or African competition.
“This doesn’t mean the competition will be easy though, because the Korean team has three members ranked in the top eight in the world,” he said.
“They include the current World and Olympic Champion from China.”
After three attempts at the Asian Champs, his best result was making it to the round of 32, however this year he feels he has what it takes to progress further.
“Obviously you aim to win every comp you compete in, but I’d like to make it to the quarter-finals and progress deeper than I have before,” Scudds said.
Before making it to the Australian Nationals and Asian Championships, Scudds has had to overcome a number of injuries this year.
“I had a really frustrating foot injury over the summer that I had to deal with, then I suffered a back injury from overtraining myself,” he said.
“In my first training session following the back injury I strained my hamstring as well.
“Being out for a month with those two injuries really put a stop on my training and my progress, but I’m glad I’ve completely overcome them now.”
He feels that the Olympics are a realistic goal in the future and a strong showing in Korea could see him launch up the rankings to qualify for London in 2012.
“If I can qualify for London it would be awesome, but right now I’ve got a three-month break and there’s World Champs at end of the year and the World Cup at start of next year,” he said.
“So while the main goal is always the Olympics, there’s plenty of other competitions that I need to focus on as well.”
–Beau Pearson
