Chris Howser followed up his last 8 at the British Championships a few weeks ago, with a Bronze medal at what is one of the top 3 opens on the British calander. Following a 5-1 win to loss ratio in round , Chris secured 4th seed from those in the first round to give him a bye to the round of 64. Here he faced Matt Edger and following a really tough match survived to win 15-14. Next was Brixton’s Paul Sanchez-Lethem, ranked 16th in the GB rankings who Chris managed to beat 15-12, followed by Anthony Avis – 15-8. This took Chris to the quarter finals and a match against James Harris (GB ranked 8th) and following a difficult match he found himself 14-12 down with little time remaining in the match. With 3 close hits Chris managed to win the match to reach the semi-final against Andrea Bombrini (Milan-Italy). This was another close match with Chris taking a lead and then Andrea catching up and leading by a hit with just a few seconds left on the clock after almost 9 minutes of fencing complete. A quick hit saw the scores leveled and the fight extended into any additional minute of ‘sudden death’ extra time. After a close exchange Chris misses a flick hit to Andrea’s shoulder and the Italian on the match to reach the final and Chris’s day was over. Andrea ended up winning Silver losing to British Champion, Dudley Tredger, 15-14 in the final to complete a day of really close matches.
This result will give Chris another boost to his ranking, which the endn of October update will be published shortly, and will probably mean a return to the top 16 of the British rankings after several years out of serious competitive fencing and the possibility of international selection for the world cup circuit..