PUES ACT YO A PE PCE OTE TO TE ET

SIDELINES

MASTERS' CROSS-COUN-
TRY RACE... North Shore
master endurance runners
dominated their competition
at the 1993 Masters Only
cross-country event in Stanley
Park on Remembrance Day.
North Vancouver's Bonni
Walker — winner of the fe-
male 40-44 division — placed
second in the women’s overall
standings. Her Capilano
Eagle club running mate Sally
Spires won the women's 45-
49 division, and teamed with
locals B.J. McHugh (female
65-69 division winner) and
Louise McCormick to win the
women’s team championship
title. Top North Shore male
competitor was West Van-
couver’s David Barr, first
place in the male 65-69 divi-
sion. North Vancouver’s
Peter Pollhammer
third in the male 50-54 divi-
sion. All races were {2 km
(7.46 miles). Women over the
age of 35 and men over the
age of 40 compete as master
athletes,

RUGBY... Capilano Rugby
club teams were undefeated in
their last three weeks of ac-
tion, posting a daunting 17-
0-1 record, heading into six
weekend games last Saturday.
And even though ihe winning
streak came to an end, the
club continues to dominate its
competition. Capilano Juniors
destroyed the Trojans 58-0 in
opening game action at the
club’s Klahanie Park facility
in North Vancouver. The first
and second sides continued
the winning ways, with
placekicker Steve Melrose
giving the Firsts a 9-6 deci-
sion over the UBC Oldboys in
the waning minutes of their
match, while the Seconds had
little trouble handling their
Oldboys counterparts 41-13.
Next it was the Thirds’ turn
to keep the record alive, and
they had little trouble
defeating Ex-Britania, 65-0.
The 4As continued their
march to top provincial
honors with a 39-0 drubbing
of the Greyhounds, but the
4Bs gave the North Shore
club. their first loss in a
month with an 8-7 loss to the
Rowing Club.

WRESTLING... North Van-
couver’s Angela Lacy finished
third in the women’s division
of the Sunkist Open Wrestling
tournament in Phoenix,
Arizona last weekend. Lacy, a
student at Carson Graham
secondary school, came from
behind to finish third in the
$3-kilogram division after
withdrawing from her first
match due to an injury, She
was the sole member of the
Canadian women's contingent
to win a medal. The tourna-
ment featured men and
women from seven countries
and was the first major event
of the wrestling season, Lacy
will be competing this up-
coming weekend in- the
Clansmen International at
Simon Fraser University in
Burnaby. Competition atop
the mountain begins Friday,
Nov. 19 at 6 p.m., with the
finals set for Saturday, Nov.
20 at 5 p.m.

finished |

eX afar aC ats.

NY teacher pro!

Zbigniew Pietrusinski seeks nat’] recogn

FENCING, FOR most pco-
ple, is the business of con-
structing walls around back
yards.

By Kevin Gillies
Contributing Writer

So says Zbigniew Pietrusinski,
who teaches the ancient sport of
sword fighting on the North
Shore.

The 36-year-old) Lynn Valley
resident runs the fencing programs
for the North Vancouver Recre-
ation Commission and trains
aspiring fencers at the North
Vancouver Fencing Club,

Before dedicating himself to the
promotion of fencing on the
North Shore, Pietrusinski operated
all fencing programs in the entire
Lower Mainland.

“T was in Surrey, White Rock,
North Delta and Coquitlam,” he
says, “Almost every day | was
going somewhere to run a fencing
program.”*

Since moving to North Van-
couver and starting his job as a
physical education and computer
teacher at St. Francis Xavier
Vancouver, he has focused his
energies on North Vancouver.

Currently, the fencing club has
between 30 and 35 members.

Pictrusinski started fencing at
the age of 11 while attending
elementary school in his native
Poland.

The Academic Sports Club of
the Academy of Physical Educa-
tion in . Warsaw was sending
coaches to local schools to en-
courage young children to get in-
volved in fencing.

‘" started in 1972 when 10 or
15 kids from class went to join the
fencing club,’’ he says of his
beginnings in the sport.

Growing up in Warsaw through
the tumultuous years of Solidari-
ty’s uprising against the Soviet
Union’s occupation of his
homeland, Pietrusinski recalls that
something major was happening
every seven or eight years in
various parts of the country.

He was there when the 1968
student uprising took place in
Warsaw and the Gdansk uprising
four years later.

A trip to see the 1976 Summer
Olympics in Montreal gave him
his first glimpse of Canada — his
self-described second home.

“It's a great country,’’ he says.

He finished university in War-
saw before emigrating to Canada
in 1981 — after the general strike
began in Poland and three months
before the imposition of martial
law.

Now he brings a part of Polish
culture to Canada by teaching one
of the oldest sports known to
man.

“ft originated when the first
men picked up wooden sticks and
started slashing at each other,’’ he
Says.

But he adds that the real sport
of fencing started in schools in the
Hith or 12th century in’ France,
ltaly and Germany, The sport
debuted as one of the first Olym-
pic events in the 1896 games,

A constantly evolving discipline,
fencing, says Pietrusinski, has ad-
vanced more in the past five years
than in the 30 years previous.

Fencing features opponents who
duel in one of three classes of
combat using different types of
swords: the foil, sabre and epee.

Fencers are scored on

See Members page 23

ETE

Pa

a

iotes ancient sport
ition for NV Fencing Club

Ge A

NEWS photo Cindy Goodma

Fencing instructor Zbigniew Pietrusinski (left) is scored upon by student and fellow North Van-
couver Fencing Ciub member J. Carlos Rockhill. The club meets Tuesday and Thursday evenings at

Maptewood elementary school.

THE NORTH Shore Winter
Club qualified five skaters for
the Western Canadian Divisional
championships during the B.C.
Sectional championships at the
PNE Agrodome fast weekend.

The five skaters are the most
one club will be sending as part
of Team B.C. to the Western
Canadians in Prince Albert,
Saskatchewan, Dec. [-5. The top
four skaters in’ each category
qualified to compete in Saskat-
chewan,

Tammy Wagner won the gold
medal in junior ladies’ campeti-

skaters qua

if
tion, while Lisa Daly finished
third. Both skaters were
medallists at last year’s nationals
in the novice division,

In senior ladies’ competition,
Vivian Hannos won the bronze
medal in an event the Winter
Club was hoping to place two
medallists. Last year’s Canadian
junior champion, 14-year-old
Keyla Obs, withdrew from = the
sectionals prior 10 the competi-
tion with a stress injury,

Tania Srdonovic skated a
flawless long program to handily
win the gold medal in the very

SERA ENG ETON EE A

GEA ANCE

ectionals

competitive novice ladies’ divi-
sion. In pre-novice competition,
Winter Club skater Sabrina
Giglio just missed out on going
to Saskatchewan with a fifth-
place finish.

In the highly competitive
junior men’s event, Mark
VanDerkerhove, 14, skated to a
bronze medal finish, while
teammate Jeffrey Zarin finished
a respectable sixth.

From Saskatchewan, top
skaters will travel to Edmonton,
Jan. 12-16, for the Canadian
nationals,