KZN teen represents SA at fencing champs
Competing at an international fencing competition has strengthened a Durban learner’s dream of participating at the Olympic Games.
It was an inauspicious start to Christian Johnson’s first Junior Africa Championships after the airline he was travelling on lost his fencing kit recently, reports Northglen News.
The Northwood School Grade 10 learner was in Dakar, Senegal, where he represented the SA fencing squad.
Following in the footsteps of his older brother, Aidan, who has also represented the country in the sport, Christian competed in the U20 age group.
The 16-year-old competes in sabre, one of three distinct disciplines (which includes foil and épée) of fencing.
In the end, Christian placed 18th out of 25, a result he was thrilled with considering this was his first international event.
“I was not expecting to do well. Actually the airline lost my kit so I had to borrow a kit (of a mask, plastron, breeches, kit and lamé) from the hosts Senegal. The kit was two times too small for me so going into my first bout I was thinking I was going to do poorly. Luckily I still had my sabres with me. I won my first bout 5-0 against a competitor from Benin which calmed my nerves.
“Overall it was a fantastic experience seeing all the new styles and watching the top fencers compete. A large part of improving in fencing is from observation. Seeing what other people do and seeing how to beat that really helped me improve and visualise different strategies for my bouts. My ultimate goal is to represent South Africa at the Olympics and I’ve thought about targeting the 2040 games,” he said.
Christian started fencing in the last five years and is a member of Maestro Fencing School.
So taken was he with the sport that he decided to start a fencing club at his school in January last year.
“It really was to grow the love for the sport. When I was in Grade Eight I organised a demonstration that was the start of drawing in new people. My coach from Maestro, Mitchum Blakeman, comes to our school to teach us all. It’s not a big sabre community we have here in South Africa so exposing it to more people and to have more competition is awesome,” he said.
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