All good things must come to an end and this is also true of The Fencing Podcast. This is our final episode and, in truth, there is very little chat about actual fencing but we hope you enjoy it anyway.

Gav updates us on his travel plans and his vital contribution to the Games. Kate, Gav and Sean put their heads together to make their predictions for the Tokyo Olympics and find that they are, disconcertingly, often in agreement. We also find that the Prediction Game that we’re playing against each other brings out our worst competitive instincts. We’d love to hear your predictions and the thinking behind them (see the description below and email: thefencingpodcast@gmail.com) The team also reveal the other sports that they’re looking forward to watching.

This week Kate, Sean and Gav look back at their highlights of the Cadet & Junior World Championships in Cairo and look forward to the Olympic zonal qualifiers. Kate and Gav invent ASMR fencing commentary and Sean pays tribute to the late President of British Fencing, Keith Smith. Sean also chats to Johnny Davis, the British team manager, prior to the European zonal qualifiers in Madrid. Our lovely sponsors: Leon Paul London - Iconic Fencing Equipment made in London Join our equally lovely Patreon supporters and immediately become a better person: The Fencing Podcast is creating Podcasts and blogs | Patreon Choke by Sian Beilock: Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal about Getting It Right When You Have to: Amazon.co.uk: Beilock, Sian: 8601200807233: Books Keith Smith obituary: INTERNATIONAL FENCING FEDERATION - The International Fencing Federation official website (fie.org) All the videos on the FIE YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/FIEvideo/videos All the results https://fie.org/competitions

Sean talks a load of foil (Kate and Gav get to chip in occasionally) as the action heads to Doha for the foil Grand Prix. The return of the game (foil, obviously) and while there were a lot of early departures, there were also a lot of familiar faces at the end of the day. Olympic places were decided, some big names miss out. Gav shares some horrifying mental images early in the episode so make sure you're sitting down. Good times and sad times for British Fencing.

In this episode the team discuss a week of epee… well almost. It took several days for the final Epee world cup in Kazan to run! And as you’d expect in this era it was carnage. Gav gets very excited about the mens epee team final, quite right too. Kate even admits she watched some of it!

Kate, Gav and Sean actually have some real, live fencing to talk about!! Budapest saw international fencing return with a men's and women's sabre World Cup and it was glorious. Everything you could have asked for including more Olympic qualification, some surprises, a few absentees, additional face masks and potentially some Olympic dress rehearsals.

Good news! Fencing is back … of sorts. It’s almost a year to the day and so we’ve decided to get the gang back together again. Hurrah.Our lovely sponsors: https://www.leonpaul.com/ Join our equally lovely Patreon supporters: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4988869&fan_landing=true Leon Paul & Brexit: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/17/shock-brexit-charges-are-hurting-us-say-small-british-businesses Upcoming competitions: https://fie.org/competitions

The gang are all together again and we’re edging towards the end of the Olympic qualification process which means some fencers will be celebrating guaranteeing their place in Tokyo while others will be heartbroken. Sean tracks the foil action from Cairo (men’s) and Kazan (women’s) as the team places are sorted out for the Olympics and some fencers do themselves the world of good for individual qualification. Kate gets very excited about the men’s sabre in Warsaw and finds her thing to have a minor rant about and Gav adds to the short list of fencing wizards Also, Gav gets a new follower on Instagram. You should follow him too. Plus, The Coolest Fencer on the Planet and what’s coming up next.

It’s [mostly] epee day here at Podcast towers. Sean & Gav talk about the recent epee competitions: Doha, Barcelona, Vancouver. That’s a lot of epee. The Fencing is great but there’s something bothering both of them, listen and find out what. And then there’s the Turin Grand Prix! Also some interesting stuff in the fencing news, a new film has entered production and Race Imboden has an Ask Me Anything on Reddit!

It's a bit late but in this episode, Sean and Gav are back from Paris with tales of daring and heroism (not their own). We cover all the action from Katowice (women's foil), Heidenheim (men's epee) and we mull over the results from the impossible to follow women's epee action from Havana. And Kate plays a blinder by being rude to Sean and Gav, insulting a prominent Russian women's sabreur and her own coach while talking us through the Montreal sabre Grand Prix. Top effort! The Coolest Fencer on the Planet goes to ….. someone you weren't expecting!

All the pre-Christmas action from St Maur, Salt Lake City and Tokyo. Sean admits to jealousy as he stayed behind to man the Podcast desks while Kate competed in Salt Lake City while Gav, astonishingly, was tapped to be the hall announcer at the Tokyo World Cup. This event was also the test event for the upcoming Olympic Games next year!

The gang are all together again! We have our first meeting of the Fencing Podcast Book Club with two fine publications to review. Sean has some fatherly words for Cairo following the men’s sabre and women’s foil World Cups held there recently, Gav gets out the spreadsheets to describe men’s epee action from Berne and Kate tells us about what it was like competing in the Orleans women’s sabre and why the home crowd were happy*. Also, trouble looming for Russia, The Coolest Fencer on the Planet and what’s coming up next.Note: We recorded this before the news broke about Russia and WAFA. Lots to mull over next time.

The 2019/20 season gets under way and Tokyo 2020 is on the horizon! Sean and Gav are back to tell you all about the early-season action from Tallinn and Bonn but where’s Kate?!? Sean describes the joys of being a travelling fencing fan and guest commentator while Gav finds a downside to having a big television. We’re encouraged by a faith in youth.

The trio sit down and discuss the action from Budapest. Kate updates us on what she did on her holidays and we ponder the phenomenon of “taking the knee”. We also pick our top fencer of the year! Strap yourselves in as we end the season!

Women’s sabre and men’s foil. Sean and Gav reporting on all the action from Day 3 of the World Championships in Budapest. Gav steps in to report on the sabre action and has two giants of the sport renewing their rivalry. Sean covers the mayhem of the men’s foil and has a good news story for British Fencing and France. The debate over Coolest Fencer on the Planet is mercifully short. Thanks to our lovely sponsors Leon Paul for getting us here https://www.leonpaul.com/ And to our equally lovely Patreon supporters, you keep the lights on! Come join them: https://www.patreon.com/join/730440? Day 3 finals on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arROQ6VlLks

Individual men's epee and women's foil. Sean and Gav reporting from Budapest with a predictably unpredictable men's epee competition and some giants of the sport in women's foil. Sean was the voice of the fencing telly for some of the time and Gav had a day of bliss. Thanks to our lovely sponsors Leon Paul for getting us here https://www.leonpaul.com/ And to our equally lovely Patreon supporters, you keep the lights on! Come join them: https://www.patreon.com/join/730440? Day 2 Finals on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYN_Gz1ZpAc

Welcome to the first finals day from the World Championships in Budapest. Sean and Gav guide you through the action in individual women’s epee and men’s foil. Surprises, nerves, awesomeness, home crowds and Sean feeling smug about his sabre predictions. Thanks to our lovely sponsors Leon Paul for getting us here https://www.leonpaul.com/ And to our equally lovely Patreon supporters, you keep the lights on! Come join them: https://www.patreon.com/join/730440? Day 1 finals: Individual women’s epee and men’s sabre: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zti-pj893w8

After a technical hitch (no blame attached) which means this episode is quite a bit shorter than originally planned, Sean, Gav and Kate make their predictions for the upcoming World Championships in Budapest. Kate will be there competing, while Sean and Gav will be generally loafing around.