Fencing: A woman of duel talents

By DAVID LEGGAT

Auckland fencer Jessica Beer is a glass half-full type of athlete.

New Zealand's sole representative - and first woman - in one of the oldest combat sports, Leicestershire-based Beer is determined she won't dip out in Athens next month without giving it her very best shot.

Her world ranking is in the sixties and she faces a daunting task in the classic epee division but ...

"It looks a very high mountain to climb, but every day has its possibilities," she says.

"I plan to put myself in a position where I can take advantage of their mistakes and they can't take advantage of mine."

It seems so simple when you look at it like that.

Talk to Beer and her commitment to her sport shines through. The first New Zealand fencer at the Olympics since Gavin McLean at Barcelona 12 years ago, she admitted her initial attraction was partly down to the sport's romantic, swashbuckling image.

"I quite liked that. It was probably what made me give it a go.

"It was not just throwing a ball at something; not invented to distract us from war. Something that was an essential part of humanity's history."

It was offered at her Auckland school, St Cuthbert's. Beer, at 14, gave it a crack and "it began to appeal to me more and more".

From the start she knew fencing, New Zealand and Olympics were words which did not fit easily into the same sentence.

But Beer's outlook changed when she spent time with Gerda McGechan in 1998, the year after attending her first world championships as the youngest member of the New Zealand team. A former national representative in the foil, McGechan recognised a rare talent.

"Her basic message was go for it, take on the world, do the best you can. I started to think about the realistic aspects of it. Up till then it was still a dream.

"She believed I could be world or Olympic champion, all it took was determination."

In Beer's eyes her mentor is "kind of perfect".

"She's always been there for the bad moments. She's overflowing with enthusiasm and I'm still drawing on it."

Beer qualified for Athens at the Oceania zone championships in Manila in April. She links up with her coach, Barry Moore in Paris this month and will train with the French and Canadian national teams.

The field in Athens will comprise 36 fencers. World rankings are relevant and Beer will be near the bottom of the field. She is likely to face an early bout to make the last 32. At that point, she knows she is likely to face a fencer in the top echelon.

In fencing, a minor misjudgment can leave an opening for a less-skilled opponent to score points.

All three events, the epee, foil and sabre, will be in Athens. Beer's discipline is the epee, which she calls "the original duelling weapon".

How to distinguish them?

For the uninitiated, the foil and sabre have more flashing blades, more action, but a smaller target area to score points.

In epee, hit an opponent before they hit you, you get a point. There are no target restrictions. You can hit anywhere from the little toe to the thumb.

Beer, whose tall, slim build is best suited to the epee, admitted that the foil or sabre would be more appealing to the untrained eye.

"With the epee, you can go a minute or two with absolutely no contact. There's a lot more feinting, a lot more testing of your opponent to see how they respond.

"Are they going to run away or run at me? So you try moves to assess their responses then you work out a trick to get around it. Then work out a trick to get around that trick. It turns into a chess game."

So more fascinating for the purist? "Absolutely."

Beer, who qualified as a vet at Massey University, headed to Europe early last year in large part with fencing as much as animals on her mind. Her options were Australia or England. She had six weeks' training organised in Hungary anyway and when she qualified as a vet she was already on the other side of the world, so decided to stay. She now works at a clinic in Leicestershire.

Beer might be a bolter in Athens. She beat world No 9 Sherraine McKay of Canada at a World Cup event in Belgium last month and is up to world No 68, but she is already thinking four years ahead.

"I see Athens as a step to Beijing in 2008. At Athens a result would be nice, but I'm well aware I'm still new on the scene."

Jessica Beer

Born: October 20, 1979, Auckland

Height: 1.83m

Education: St Cuthbert's College

Qualifications: Bachelor of Veterinary Science, Massey University

National titles: New Zealand Open women's epee champion 1997-2002; New Zealand Open women's foil champion 1998-2000.

International titles: Australian Open women's epee champion 2002; Australian Open women's team foil, gold medal 2001, 2002; Ipswich World Cup bronze medal 2003; Essex Open silver medal 2003; Milner-Barry Cup (England) silver medal 2003; Oceania zone Olympic qualifier, Manila 1st.