From January 16–18, 2026, our club ŠERM Liberec, in cooperation with NEXT TOUCHE, organized a major international youth foil competition. The tournament was unusually held over three days. Already on Friday morning, the EFC U14 European Circuit took place, featuring both boys’ and girls’ events. Competitors from a total of 10 countries took part, including three representatives from Liberec – Kryštof Bureš, Lukáš Dušek and David Petrásek. A total of 41 boys competed. Among the Czech representatives, the best result was achieved by Theodor Schaefer from USK Praha, who finished in 6th place. Another Czech fencer, Vít Chmela from Sokol Brno, reached the final eight and placed 8th. Among the Liberec fencers, the biggest hope was Lukáš Dušek, who unfortunately suffered a serious ankle injury in his bout for a place among the top 16, had to withdraw from the match and finished in 19th place. Kryštof Bureš placed 33rd and David Petrásek 34th. In the girls’ category, a total of 19 competitors took part, and Czech foilists won both bronze medals, namely Anna Marie Chlebounová and Lea Adamovská.
Over the weekend, the tournament continued with Czech Cup competitions in the U11, U13 and U15 categories, again with strong participation from foreign competitors. Our fencers competed in all boys’ categories, and unusually, the current top Czech U15 épée fencer Bára Vlčková also took part in the competition as part of her training. She performed very well and finished in 15th place. The best result was achieved by Honza Hartl in the U15 category, where he advanced to the final eight and finished in 7th place. Kryštof Bureš placed 13th and David Petrásek 14th. In the U13 category, our mini cadets competed mainly to gain experience in the older age group. Even so, Tadeáš Špánek and Václav Sonntag bravely fought their way into the top 32. As is traditional for this season, we had the largest representation in the U11 mini cadet category, where among 36 competitors our two best fencers narrowly missed the final eight, finishing in 9th place Václav Sonntag and 11th Jan Tomáš. Our youngest competitors then placed as follows: 21st Tadeáš Špánek, 22nd Kristián Špánek, 24th Dan Zenkl, 25th Václav Švestka, 27th Jonáš Bulušek and 34th Matěj Suchánek.
The three-day tournament was very demanding for us as organizers, but we believe it was worth it. The level and atmosphere of the competitions were exceptional, and for the young fencers it was a great experience and an inspiration for their future training.