Almost one year later....

There is no excuse my friends.....busy, lazy and just living a precarious but happy life has caused me to fall behind in letting you know just what has happened this past year in the life of a fencer....me! Last we spoke it was Tunis I returned from. And to follow was the extended trip to Madrid and Padoua. That is where I left you hanging. To be honest, the fencing part is a blur but with pictures like these I can only remember the fun and friends that were had. I will leave it to the photos to help you get a sense of what it was like. I was lucky to have both my brother and sister meet me in Italy....as they were traveling on to Croatia to visit the Peros village while I had to return to Canada for business and personal reasons.

Later that year, the decision to send 2 juniors to the World Championships in Turkey, in replace of the two more senior teammates (one being me) was a very bold but important move. Its always a fine line between how you generate experience in the younger ones who are developing and the older ones who guide the team. But the acceptance is a part of any high performance sport and we must focus on 'team' which is the future.

Since last fall, we have bought into a new Russian coach who is very excited about the move to Canada. This last weekend our first tournament took us to San Jose, California for a North American Cup. I must admit that I feel like I'm in a new frame of mind this year. In my head the stars are beginning to align a lot more and the wise words from my father are starting to hold true...."sabre fencers tend to mature later in life". The confidence I had on the strip this weekend was overwhelming....even with a convention hall of on-lookers I felt in control of my actions. On top of that, physically I feel great. All the early morning runs and intervals are paying off...not to mention the continued massages, yoga and ice baths, brrrrrrrrrr.....how that makes me cringe to even think about, ha). For the first competition of the season I placed 12th of 167 (the best result of any non-American) and came home proud that I'm still in the game. This is going to be my season folks. Along with that business is on the 'ups' and family and friends are better than ever. I hope you can be here for the ride! Here are some pics from Europe, but sadly none from San Jose. Next week its a training camp in NYC with the Americans and the week after we're off to Budapest and Moscow two Grand Prix events. This is going to BIIGGGG!!!!