LSA’s Chris Isom took home the gold and the title of national champion on Day 3 of Lightspeed Menace. He fought in a tight battle against C-rated (now B) and rising Lightspeed star, Ryan McKenna, based out of Virginia. Isom and McKenna fought in an extremely close fight, with McKenna nearly clinching the victory with a contested headshot. However, the referees declined to rule on such a close race, and gave the fencers another encounter to settle the true score. This time, Isom caught McKenna by surprise with a headshot of his own, landing the blow with a clean bolt. This put Isom over the top, getting him the win, the gold medal, and the title, as well as an “A”. This is a remarkable rise for such a relatively new athlete in our sport. This also makes Chris the youngest person to ever hold an “A” grade, at just 20 years of age. Although, he is not the youngest person to ever hold the title of national champion, because that title goes to…

ALLY FOURNIER

Ally Fournier of Tennessee, formerly of Basin Saber Academy in Klamath Falls, Oregon, battled five other women in order to face off in the finals against top-rated woman Phoebe Camilletti. For this event, Fournier had chosen the highly defensive Ren Saber, which would be pivotal in the gold medal match to come. The two had been fairly even at the half before Camilletti broke away to hit 13 points and just one shy of match point. But Fournier rallied, steadily climbing back up until reaching the score of 11. In the final exchange, Camilletti threw one of her trademark centercuts, which was deftly parried by Fournier’s Ren Saber and followed up by a counterattack, worth 3 points, and snatching the victory from Camilletti in an instant. This made her the winner, and one of Lightspeed’s national champions of 2024, the youngest in history at just 19 years old.

It will be impossible to sum up everything in a single article, but there will be more news to come. Stay tuned.

Both Chris and Ally were gifted saber prizes from Kyber Cave, one of our great suppliers! Chris is holding a “Judge” saber while Ally is holding the “Ghost”.

Cang Snow