Story courtesy of College Sport Media

Wellington College year 13 student Joel Ball-La Hood is forging his sporting path in fencing, and he is currently both the Australian and Oceania Junior Épée Fencing champion.

In February, Joel won four gold medals in both the individual and teams events in Épée fencing at the Australian and Oceania Junior Fencing Championship in Melbourne.

Early next year, his sport is taking him to Italy on a fulltime basis.

“Next year I am going to Milan to study and train,” said Joel. “There is an academy that has just started and is offering opportunities for people from smaller fencing countries like New Zealand. My friend and New Zealand Junior teammate Nolan Peterson is first year out of school at Wellington High School so is heading there in September and I am joining him after I finish school at the start of next year.”

Épée is one of three styles of fencing and the one Joel specialises in, the others being Foil and Sabre. New Zealand fencers mostly do either or both Épée and Foil fencing.

In brief, Épée and Foil is all about scoring points to the body with the tip of the sword and a button lights up for a point when you score a hit. There are other differences such as the rule of ‘priority’ in Foil where the person who starts the attack gets the point if both competitors land simultaneous hits, and in Foil the torso up is in play and in Épée you can score points anywhere on the body from head to toe.

For more on the styles and rules of fencing watch the short video embedded at the bottom of this article.

Fencing will be featured coming up in the Olympic Games in Paris and is listed as the oldest combat sport in the Olympics. Although it is not considered a combat sport, in the same way martial arts and boxing are.

“Your goal is not to harm the other person, it is to score points and it is a totally safe and fun sport,” said Joel. “Any fencing injuries are mainly the typical hamstrings and muscles and things like that in other sports.”

Fencing, and particularly Joel’s specialty Épée, is a sport of skill, tactics and agility as much as anything else and one he practices at least four times in a typical week and often at the Wellington Swords Club in Brooklyn as a member of the Wellington South Fencing Club.

Winning the Australian and Oceania titles in February (which were held concurrently in Melbourne) was part of a busy run of competitions that Joel has competed in over the past several months – all over the world.

“Since the end of last year, I’ve been to Hong Kong [Junior World Cup], Bahrain [Junior Asian Zone Championships], Riyadh Saudi Arabia [Junior World Championships], Melbourne twice [Australian and Oceania Championships and AFC 1 Senior tournament], and Brisbane [Australian Nationals].”

Most of these have been team competitions, as well as individual ones. Nolan Peterson (former Wellington High School, noted above) and Cooper Gouge (first year out of Scots College) are two of his New Zealand Junior teammates.

This is not counting domestic trips around New Zealand.

Competition is tough competing with the world’s best but increased exposure means improved results “We don’t do badly, but it is hard to compete with the best countries in our sport with significant resources and higher competition.”

“In these recent overseas competitions, we have had team wins over our counterparts from Brazil, Singapore, Jordan, Turkmenistan and Macau. We also beat Australia regularly when we travel over there!”

Joel took up fencing back when he was year six at Wellesley College and has never looked back.

“One of my coaches Daniel Chan, who is a former Hong Kong Olympian, travels around to some schools introducing the sport. In my case, my older brother was already doing it, so when he came to our school I joined in and fell in love with it and stuck with it.”

There is now a healthy group of young fencers in Wellington, including some young guys and girls coming up behind Joel and his contemporaries.

As well as Chan, Joel’s other coach and mentor is William Bishop, who represented New Zealand and until recently was living for a time in Brisbane and competing throughout Australia.

Another aspect to the sport is the equipment and clothing that comes with the sport.

“If you are just starting out or just doing it for fun, every club you go to has gear you can use for free. You don’t need anything – you just show up and the clubs will provide that for you.

“I have all my own gear, which is pretty expensive. First of all, you need to be protected and second when you are entering competitions it is tested every time to see if it meets the standard. I have a bag, I have six weapons, my mask, my whites, all of it is an investment to make.”

What about the mask? “It is a mesh mask, you can see straight through it and I don’t even notice it is there.”

One of the competitions coming up for Joel and teammates is the Commonwealth Junior Championships in Christchurch in July.

Then there are the New Zealand Secondary School Championships in Auckland in early September, where Joel will be defending his NZSS Épée title.

As well as his busy life training and competing, Joel is halfway through his last year at school so in a few months he will be fighting hard trying to pass exams and gain his qualifications for the next stage in his journey in Italy.

Fencing sport explainer video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7zxpDW8nb0

Article added: Friday 12 July 2024