The 6th and final round of the 2024/2025 N Ireland Junior Foil Series was held last Sunday 16th March in the Sullivan Upper Sports Hall. Nineteen SU fencers took part across 6 of the 7 age group categories.
U12s
The boys’ U12 event had Shion Suto-Murphy, Ronan O’Hagan and Miller Lu representing SUFC, Ronan and Miller both in their 1st fencing competition. All 3 were knocked out in the last 16, though Ronan almost made the last 8, narrowly losing his L16 fight 9-10. In the girls’ U12s Olivia Morse made the semi-finals after a strong performance in her poule, but lost her semi fight to finish with a bronze medal.
U14s
Sullivan fencers Grace Tsang and Amy Walker met at the quarter-final stage of the girls’ U14s, Grace winning through to the semis, where she was then knocked out by the eventual U14F winner. Lydia Hamilton made the other semi-final, but also lost, ending up joint 3rd with Grace, with Amy 5th. In the boys’ U14s three SU fencers made the quarter-finals: Eric Hutchinson, William Penny and Thomas Morrow. Only William made it through to the semis, but was beaten there by the eventual U14M winner to finish with bronze. Thomas and Eric were 5th and 8th, while Flynn Woolsey-Jensen, Oscar Duddy and Mark Ross finished 11th, 12th and 13th.
U16s
The girls’ U16s had 2 SUFC fencers competing, Cassidy Ogle and Erin Keough. Cassidy made one semi-final and Erin the other, but they were both beaten there by their season-long Dublin based rivals, ending up joint 3rd. Four SU fencers made the boys’ U16 quarter-finals: Tom Woolsey-Jensen, Sam Snoddy, Patrick John and Ethan Dilworth. Ethan and Patrick were knocked out at this stage to finish 5th and 6th, while Tom and Sam met in one of the semi-finals, a very close fight with Tom winning 15-14. This earned Sam a bronze medal and Tom a place in the final, which he won convincingly 15-10. This was Tom’s first ever NIJFS gold medal win, won in his last fight of the last round of his last year as an NIJFS fencer!
This was another excellent SUFC competition turn-out, with a total of 1 gold and 7 bronze medals won.
Sullivan Overall Series Results
After totalling of points from the best 5 results of the 6 NIJFS rounds, Sullivan fencers finished in the following series positions. An unusual number of joint placings occurred this year where fencers finished on equal points and the NIJFS points system tie-break rules failed to separate them.
U12 Girls | 2nd (joint) Olivia Morse |
U12 Boys | 6th Shion Suto-Murphy, 12th Ronan O’Hagan, 13th Miller Lu |
U14 Girls | 2nd Lydia Hamilton, 3rd Amy Walker, 4th Grace Tsang |
U14 Boys | 3rd Thomas Morrow, 4th William Penny, 6th Flynn Woolsey-Jensen, 7th Eric Hutchinson, 8th (joint) Mark Ross & Oscar Duddy, 11th Zach Fyffe, 12th Daniel McBride, 13th Cormac McCleary |
U16 Girls | 1st (joint) Cassidy Ogle, 2nd Erin Keough |
U16 Boys | 2nd (joint) Sam Snoddy & Tom Woolsey-Jensen, 5th Ethan Dilworth, 6th Theo Beggs, 7th Patrick John, 8th Adam Sugar, 10th Oliver Stevenson |
This was an amazing year in terms of junior competition results for SUFC, finishing with Cassidy Ogle in a joint win of the N Ireland U16F junior fencing championship title, along with another 7 SU fencers winning 2nd and 3rd place championship trophies: Olivia Morse (2nd U12F), Lydia Hamilton (2nd U14F), Amy Walker (3rd U14F), Thomas Morrow (3rd U14M), Erin Keogh (2nd U16F), Sam Snoddy (2nd U16M), Tom Woolsey-Jensen (2nd U16M).
David White
SUFC Coach
19 Mar 2025
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