Silver at BUCS Nationals for Scott Lang Scholar
Scott Lang High Performance Athlete Vinson Wong took silver at the BUCS Nationals Fencing finals last weekend.
Vinson travelled down to Sheffield with his club to compete at BUCS Nationals and we found out how Vinson prepared to compete:
Q: How did your training prepare you for this competition?
“Training is definitely the biggest part of my preparation for this competition. Sparring with good fencers gave me the consistency I needed to perform, as well as the tactical mind I needed to outsmart my opponent. But I didn’t alter much from my usual training schedule just because of BUCS. I have just been following the same schedule for the last 4 years. This includes sparring training sessions in St Andrews 3 times a week, and private lessons with my coach, Stan Stoodley, twice a week in Edinburgh, and sparring with the Scottish national team fencers after the lessons.”
Q: How did it feel competing in such a big competition such as BUCS Nationals?
“To be honest it wasn’t much of a shock because the BUCS individuals championship wasn’t my first competition after covid. With the support given by Saints Sport as a Scott Lang High Performance Athlete, I was fortunate enough to go to a few even bigger competitions throughout the season before BUCS individuals. This includes the satellite world cups in Zagreb and Copenhagen. It also helps that my coach, Stan Stoodley, was by my side the whole time during this competition. His vast experience in piste-side coaching and experience from his competitive days helped us come up with tactics that gave me the tactical edge over my opponents.”
Q: Who were you competing against in the lead up to your final performance?
“BUCS individuals is a UK university-wide competition. After my matches from group stage, I was seeded 9th out of 108 into the elimination matches and had a BYE, meaning that I was exempt from the first elimination match. So, I started from the table of 64 which went smoothly until I met Sam Wilson (#28 in the UK) of Durham in the table of 16 match, which was my toughest fight that led to a 13-13 tie and had to go into the “priority minute” (sudden death), where I narrowly came out on top. This was then followed by the quarter and semi-final matches which went very smoothly until I met Louis Guennou of UCL in the finals. Louis is a senior GB team fencer (#13 in UK) that I’ve seen regularly in the senior World Cup circuits. We’ve never had the opportunity to fence before, so it was fresh ground for the both of us in the finals. The result of the fight was 15-13 to Louis.”
Q: Who would you say helped your reach this point in your Fencing Career?
“I would like to thank a few people for this result.
“Firstly, my fencing coach Stanley Stoodley. When I arrived in St Andrews in my first year, I hadn’t fenced in over 5 years, and so I essentially started over from scratch. When Stan was still coaching in St Andrews, we would take private lessons whenever there’s a free slot. We would end up having 2-3 hours long lessons every Wednesday and Friday. It was also when my learning curve was the steepest, I improved a lot in a very short amount of time, and I started competing nationally and achieved some good results. In essence, I wouldn’t be anywhere near where I am today without Stan.
“I would also like to thank Ian Gaunt, Deputy Director of Sport, for selecting me as part of the Scott Lang High Performance Athlete programme which financially enabled me to compete in international tournaments like the World Cup Satellites in Copenhagen and Zagreb, as well as the multiple Italian national competitions that I went to. Going to these competitions gave me the experience and tactical mind that I needed for the result.
“In addition, being a part of this programme also led me to meeting Lorne Christie and Scott Teister, my S&C coaches, that put me in shape for the competition seasons. None of this would have been possible without the support from Saints Sport and the Scott Lang High Performance Athlete programme.”
