This was the best fencing competion that I have ever competed in or attended as a spectator. The organizers need to be commended. It was better than the Crescent City Open, any of the North American Cups I have attended, and the two Summer National Championships that I visited (not to denigrate any of those events).
All of the strips were grounded. The events were executed in a timely manner. The orgainizers made efficient use of AskFRED making registration the quickest I have ever been through. There was a strip set aside for finals, a stage for medal ceremonies, and some vendors. I only regret not purchasing more equipment, but I wasn’t sure how that would fly with my wife.
There were a few shortfalls, but they were not big enough to detract from the event. I would have liked to see the final strip placed on a raised platform. A rather large crowd formed during the men’s foil final making viewing a little difficult. The selection of food was limited. In addition to their offering of junk food (pizza and candy bars), I would have liked to see energy bars and sandwhiches. The prices for the food available was extremely reasonable ($1 for a slice of pizza and $.50 for a bottle of water). The organizers used X-seed instead of Fencing Time and failed to take advantage of AskFred’s automatic results posting. Finally, I would like to see the Rose Condon have a year-round dedicated website. It is an event that is worthy of one.
One Final Note: The Rose Condon is named for a young fencer who passed away (not sure of specifics). The proceeds from the event go towards a scholarship in her name. It’s nice to see a fencing event benefit two worthy causes like these, the memory of this girl and the scholarship program.
March 1st, 2005 at 9:54 am
Wow! On behalf of at least a dozen faithful “Friends of Rose” thank you for the compliments on the tournament! Our hope is that everyone had a good experience.
Thank you also for your helpful and insightful constructive criticism. Those not attending may not know that after the tournament, we ask the fencers (via fredmail) for that. We aren’t afraid to see the problems. That will make it better next year. (I wanted a raised strip, too, but it wasn’t possible.) A special Rose site (without those nasty pop-ups) is a smart idea and I am already on it for next time. I will try to remember to notify people outside the section when it is up.
One note about Xseed vs. Fencing Time. I do hate that I can’t use the cool explicit results from FRED because I do exclusively use Xseed. However, ideally, we are training our athletes for the national level and beyond. Xseed is the exact software that is used in every national tournament. A fencer who participated in this tournament will know the ropes when they get to a national tournament, since it is run very similarly and everything will be completely familiar to them. I will try to work out a plan where this tournament can be recreated to reflect the complete results, even it if is scanned results in jpg files.
Additionally, this season the Southwest Section Circuit Cup Executive Committee established a seeding procedure to protect the those who are at the top of the circuit. SWS points are protected to 8 and National points to 32. The only software that can easily handle this is Xseed.
Members of the Alabama Division (Southeast Section) didn’t get a flier (another oversight we’ll fix!) That would have explained who is Rose. Here’s the link. C:\almweb\TOURNAMENTS\Rose05info.pdf
March 1st, 2005 at 10:27 am
Thanks for the link.
I can understand wanting to use another tournament program like xSeed. There are many reasons to use the various programs out there. I only hope that askFRED will soon support results from them all.
While I came close to attending this event last year, I didn’t make it. It’s close to a 7 hour drive from Mobile, AL. However, I am sure that this event will be on the top of my list for future years.
On top of everything else, this event had one of the friendliest atmospheres that I’ve seen. Too often, the competitive nature of fencing events obscures how much fun they really are. The Rose Condon Memorial rose above petty club squabbles and produced an atmosphere all could enjoy.
Congratulations again on a successful fencing event.