Iqaluit Fencing Club ends swashbuckling season
A dozen youths cross swords in Nakasuk School gymnasium
Melia Peters-David, 11, left, and Elise Chambers, 14, cross swords Wednesday during their final fencing practice of the season in Iqaluit’s Nakasuk School gym. (Photo by Daron Letts)
Fencing appeals to children for one simple and perhaps obvious reason.
Nevaeh Braun, 12, left, duels with Mégane Rouillier, 8, Wednesday during the Iqaluit Fencing Club’s final practice of the season at Nakasuk School. (Photo by Daron Letts)
“You have a sword,” said Mégane Rouillier, 8, the youngest member of the Iqaluit Fencing Club. “It’s fun.”
Rouillier was among a dozen fencers aged 16 and under who crossed swords, known as foils, in the Nakasuk Elementary School gym Wednesday night.
Rouillier is new to the sport, but she is already innovating.
Her strategy? Scrunch her small frame even smaller so she can wiggle inside the reach of her older, taller opponents.
“I can get close and they can’t hit me,” Rouillier said, wiping sweat from her forehead and smiling cheek-to-cheek after duelling with a nine-year-old.
Mastering moves and applying them in a novel way is what the sport is all about, said instructor Nick Wagman.
Wagman is a former national champion who fenced with the University of Ottawa. He has coached Iqaluit fencers since moving there in 2018.
“I love the enthusiasm and creativity that fencing brings out,” he said. “There’s the technical skills, but it’s how you put them together that you score and win.”
Each competitor is connected by a cord to a buzzer that identifies any scoring hits from the blunt tip of an opponent’s light and flexible foil.
“I find it a cool sport,” said Nevaeh Braun, 12. “I’ve tried out some sports like soccer and volleyball, and they weren’t really my thing.”
She joined the club after watching the 2024 Olympics in Paris, where Ontario fencer Eleanor Harvey won bronze, Canada’s first ever medal in the sport.
Braun earned her own medal — silver — on Wednesday, as part of the honours handed out by coach Siobhan Moss during the final practice of their season.
Moss has taught Iqaluit fencers since 1991. She leads a weekly fencing class for six adults who wield a sturdier sword known as a sabre. Their season ended Monday.
Moss first picked up the sword as a teenager growing up in Montreal’s west end in the 1970s.
“I got involved and never stopped,” she said.
The club will recruit next season’s fencers in September.
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