KEY POINTS:
The All Blacks' Rugby World Cup preparation has nothing on the work Hawkes Bay farmer Paul Van Beers put in to winning his 10th national fencing championship.
Van Beers couldn't take a break from top-line fencing for eight weeks a la rugby players' reconditioning sabbatical from the Super 14. But after missing out on the Golden Pliers title for the past two years, Van Beers put himself through a programme that would make a pro footballer wince.
The Porangahau 44-year-old would regularly leave the quad-bike in the farm shed and run out into the hills with his dogs to muster stock. When the weather wouldn't allow that, he'd work out on the treadmill at home, a regime that got the former world fencing champion into the best shape of his life.
Van Beers also carried out a thorough analysis of how his fencing technique stacked up against fierce rivals like defending champion Owen Petersen, and refined his tools and methods accordingly.
In the final, a highlight of the National Fieldays at Mystery Creek, competitors had to build a 50m fence, which would then be judged on tension and excellence of workmanship. While Van Beers would normally sacrifice speed for quality, for this year's competition he made a tactical switch.
"I'd come to realise that these guys were all pretty even and it was hard to beat each other ... The only real way to win was through speed, but I didn't know whether I could keep the quality and tensions up with the speed. That was the gamble, but it paid off."
Van Beers finished his fence in 5h 15m, an hour or more before several of his main rivals. The workmanship found favour with the judges, Van Beers' 86.6 point total well ahead of Wayne Newdick's 110.
Newdick and Van Beers later teamed up to win the pairs.
Van Beers' 10th title was going to be his last, but the lure of an 11th title - and maybe competing in next year's world champs in Germany - has proven to be too strong.
"I was going to retire, but I will come back and defend the title."
