A better trip out...
Nov. 12th, 2018 08:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
graculusAfter the disaster of my last competition, I've been working hard at practice and also trying to be more positive, in preparation for the next one. Pleased to say that it went much better and I ended up with the best result I've had in a competition so far!
I've been so used to being last, or next-to-last (or on one much celebrated occasion, next-to-next-to-last!) that I was absolutely stunned when I came out of the poule ranked 17 of 22. Yes, 5 people did worse than me in the first round - I had one really awful fight where I just couldn't land any hits and then the rest were much better, so I clawed some points back that way. That meant the top 10 fencers got to put their feet up while the rest of us fought to get into the last 16.
I was lucky because I ended up fighting someone who I'd already had (and beaten) in the poule but it still was very close and went to 15-14 in my favour in the end. I was ahead all the time but could never quite shake her, she kept coming back at me all the way. Anyway, that's another target achieved (win a DE fight) off my list of fencing things!
The 'prize' of getting into 16th was a fight against the number 1 seed, who was the fencer I'd had no luck with in the poule too, so I wasn't too surprised when she beat me 15-2. Towards the end, I started laughing and couldn't stop, which I still think is an improvement over frustrated annoyance, because I just couldn't quite get the right distance for hits. She went on to win the entire thing, so obviously I wasn't the only one who found her tricky!
I was guaranteed at least 16th and then someone above me in the ranking got dumped out of the competition by someone lower ranked, so I finished 15th! There's a fencer I come across regularly who started around the same time as me and this was also the first time I finished above her in the rankings (she was 20th, think she had the nightmare time I had last time around), so that's a bonus.
I've been so used to being last, or next-to-last (or on one much celebrated occasion, next-to-next-to-last!) that I was absolutely stunned when I came out of the poule ranked 17 of 22. Yes, 5 people did worse than me in the first round - I had one really awful fight where I just couldn't land any hits and then the rest were much better, so I clawed some points back that way. That meant the top 10 fencers got to put their feet up while the rest of us fought to get into the last 16.
I was lucky because I ended up fighting someone who I'd already had (and beaten) in the poule but it still was very close and went to 15-14 in my favour in the end. I was ahead all the time but could never quite shake her, she kept coming back at me all the way. Anyway, that's another target achieved (win a DE fight) off my list of fencing things!
The 'prize' of getting into 16th was a fight against the number 1 seed, who was the fencer I'd had no luck with in the poule too, so I wasn't too surprised when she beat me 15-2. Towards the end, I started laughing and couldn't stop, which I still think is an improvement over frustrated annoyance, because I just couldn't quite get the right distance for hits. She went on to win the entire thing, so obviously I wasn't the only one who found her tricky!
I was guaranteed at least 16th and then someone above me in the ranking got dumped out of the competition by someone lower ranked, so I finished 15th! There's a fencer I come across regularly who started around the same time as me and this was also the first time I finished above her in the rankings (she was 20th, think she had the nightmare time I had last time around), so that's a bonus.
