Caitlin Maxwell collects second Junior Women’s Sabre Silver in Bulgaria

Nineteen year old, Caitlin Maxwell from Truro Fencing Club followed up her podium performance at the last Women’s Sabre World Cup in Budapest by claiming silver again at the weekend.  She made the gold medal match at the latest World Cup in Plovdiv, narrowly losing to Bulgarian Yoana Ilieva.  The result moves her up to eighth in the World as she prepares for the European Championships.

A field of one hundred and three took to the pistes in Bulgaria and Maxwell came through a strong poule, dropping just one fight.  Ranked eleventh for the knockout phase, she benefited from a bye through the incomplete round of 128.  She went on to beat Switzerland’s Lebel 15-9, Andaloro from Italy 15-7, followed by two Russian’s, Zinyyukhina 15-12 and Shorokhova by the same score.  That guaranteed her second podium appearance of the season.

Her semi-final opponent was another Russian and the World number 21, Dariya Drozd.  They previously met in the quarterfinals in Budapest, a fight which Maxwell edged 15-13.  There was no question of another close contest in Plovdiv as Maxwell hit a rich vein of form against world number 21 Drozd (RUS) in the semi finals.  Controlling the middle 4 metres with series of well-prepared parries and clinical attacks, she built an 8-2 lead, before closing out 15-5 in her best match of the day.  The final against Ilieva (BUL) was a seesaw affair.  Maxwell took an early 4-1 lead, before Ilieva found form and seized a 11-5 lead.  Maxwell then produced a scintillating come back, clawing back to 13-14 down, but couldn’t prevent the world number 3 taking the final hit and the title.

Jon “we’ve been working hard in training on Caiti controlling the middle of the piste against more aggressive fencers, so to see her produce this kind of result when faced with a series of fencers who tried to take the match to her is very pleasing. As the season has progressed she’s grown in confidence, and our main focus remains on peaking for the junior European and junior world championships.”

Speaking after the event, Maxwell said, “I’m so pleased to have made a second podium this season. After a silver medal in Budapest early in January, I wanted to prove to myself that it wasn’t a one-off and that I could produce that kind of form more consistently.  My next goal is to move into the top six of the world junior ranking by the end of the season.”

Her coach, Jon Salfield added, “We’ve been working hard in training on Caiti controlling the middle of the piste against more aggressive fencers.  So to see her produce this kind of result when faced with a series of fencers who tried to take the match to her is very pleasing.  As the season has progressed she’s grown in confidence and our main focus remains on peaking for the Junior European and Junior world championships.”

Full results are here.

Maxwell is one of the young athletes on the British Fencing Athlete Development Programme, funded by Sport England.  More information about ADP camps, programmes and updates can be found here.