WAIS fencing athlete Sutherlan Scudds has continued his2011 national dominance winning the Australian Fencing Federation’s Round 3 Competition, at the AIS in Canberra.
Despite a slow start through the round stage, Scudds managed to turn his third ranking into a powerful run home that included a clinical display in the final win over Frederic Jaccard.
“I Started off slowly, placing third out of the pools round,” said Scudds. “I then won my early matches easily before drawing Hadi Mohammadzadeh Miri, aprevious Asian Championship medallist from Iran, in the Quarter Finals.”
After losing to an Iranian competitor at the recent Asian Championships, Scudds admitted the chance to exact some revenge was one he seized.
“I was pumped for this match,” he said. “In what looked like a tough fight, I fenced strongly eventually winning 15-8 and after fencing so well against a strong international fencer, I felt great going into the semi finals.”
Scudds met Queenslander Tony Harcourt in the semi-final, controlling the duel from the start, winning 15-10.
Scudds then received news his main challenger had been eliminated, leading to a contest against darkhorse Jaccard.
“When my main rival, and the second ranked fencer in Australia,lost in the semi final 15-8, I thought I could be in for a tough fight against an in form Frederic Jaccard,” Scudds said. “However, my experience showed as I disbanded of him 15-4 in my most convincing final ever.”
“I felt great after that win, we have just starting building towards the World Championships in Catania so the timing of the competition wasn’t great, I have been working on a lot, so to be able to pull it all together for the competition was very satisfying,” Scudds said.
“It was also great to get that win after such a tough loss at the Asian Championships where I lost 15-14.”
A confident Scudds, will now continuing building for the World Championships, scheduled to be held in early October.
