WAIS fencing athlete Sutherlan Scudds is preparing himself for a busy month in Europe where he will compete in Greece and Spain, with Olympic qualification points on offer.
Scudds – a fencing national champion – has been preparing for both the Coupe Akropolis and the Villa de Madrid with two other members of the Australian Fencing team in Rome, at the Italian National Training Centre.
The Italian base has given Scudds the opportunity to train with some of the world’s top ranked fencers as he builds towards his dream of representing Australia at an Olympic Games.
“We have justfinished a camp with the Italian and German teams and will be training with the Korean team when we get back from our first competition in Athens,” Scudds said.
“It has been an amazing experience to date, as amongst those teams are world numberone and two ranked athletes, and several inside the top20.”
“I feel like I am improving a great deal training with them here in Europe,” he added.
Scudds and the Australian team contingent will first travel to Athens for the April 28-29 Coupe Akropolis, before heading to Spain between May 13-14 for the Villa de Madrid in the nation’s capital.
Although Scudds will face some top competition over the tour, he has set himself a target round, which if reached would come with a tangible reward.
“It’s the start of the Olympic qualification season so the competitions will be intense,” he said.
“They’re likely to have about 160-170 entries from 20 differentcountries.My goal is to makeit into the top 64round. That would give me some points towards Olympic qualification and provide a stepping stone to work from in later competitions.”
