Bring Home 6 National Medals

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4 Vallarta Fencers Bring Home 6 National Medals<br>Ariana Aranda and Jenny Lobato Make the Div. 1 National Team<p>

By Claire Miller:<p>
Gold, silver, and bronze – normally the stuff dreams are made of, but not for our local Club Esgrima fencing team.  At the latest Jr. National tournament held in Mexico City Feb. 4 –5, Ariana Aranda, Hector de la Torre, Stefany Lobato, and Alejandro Flores did a tremendous job and brought home 6 medals in a variety of events. In the competition just prior Ariana Aranda and Jennyfer Lobato won spots on the Div. 1 National Team, they will next compete in a national training camp to see who on the national team will represent Mexico at the upcoming (July) Central American Games in Bogota Colombia, the most prestigious international event in Central America this year.<p>

Ariana Aranda in the women’s saber individual trounced the competition and took the gold medal. The following day, Team Jalisco took the silver medal. Ariana - the strongest part of the team, won the most points against archrival Yucatan (who took the gold).<p>

Hector de la Torre also brought in two medals from Men’s saber. De la Torre won the silver individual, and the team silver for Jalisco – again Puerto Vallarta showed its value to the state, as De La Torre was the strongest team member winning the most points against Yucatan. The team only lost the gold medal by one point.<p>

Stefany “Fany” Lobato and Alejandro Flores, the youngest competing members from PV who attended, both put in strong performances to help the state win the gold and bronze medals in the Team Epee event. “It was so exciting to win the gold medal (Women’s epee), when I stood on the podium I really felt proud of our team” said Fany. “This was a fun event, and it really felt great to bring home another medal (bronze for Men’s epee) for Puerto Vallarta,” said Alex Flores. Coach Eugenio Davidson couldn’t be happier “while Fany has brought home several individual and team medals, and represented Jalisco at the Jr. Olympics, this is her first gold medal. She and Alex are among my hardest and most consistent in training, they both worked extremely hard for it, they deserve it” said Davidson. “It, however, is most disappointing that we had such trouble obtaining our funding for the bus tickets from the Fomento Deportivo (City Sports Department). On the day of the trip they still had not produced the promised funds, so the other fencers were not able to go. At the very last minute, City Councilman Cesar Abarca was able to get a special check issued, and Ariana Aranda took a taxi out to the bus station to see if there were any seats left. Unfortunately, we were not able to get a hold of the other children on time, so the team left without them. This situation had such a dramatic effect and because of it several of our fencers will not qualify for the National Jr. Olympics,” continued Davidson.

The next of series of Jr. National tournaments will be on the weekend of March 3rd, a crucial competition that will confirm who will win their spots to represent the state of Jalisco at the 2006 National Jr. Olympics to be held in May.