08/06/2026
The Melbourne HEMA Open has finished!
This was a huge event for the School of Historical Fencing, we had 61 competitors from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Japan, across 3 tournaments: Rapier, Sidesword, and Longsword, each tournament taking a whole day.
We will definitely be running this event again. Keep an eye on our Youtube Channel to see some videos from the comp - they will eventually show up there - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnJVZg-Y_UIu5X-1o68I-kg
I would like to thank everyone who helped to run the event. In particular the people who came along to help run or referee or judge even though they weren't fencing: Andrew, Liam, Minh, Dayan, Aidan, Lorne, Tom, Oskarn, Vadim, Michael, Aella, Kale, Greg, Dan, Liam.
Aditionally, Stu for the awesome rules video, and Catherine for hand engraving the medals,
Lastly, I would like thank everyone who refereed: Heather, Hunter, Jack, Stu, Travis, .Anthony, Justin, Minh, Adi, Dan, Katie, Victor, and Woody.
It was a big team and much appreciated! If you helped out and I have missed you, I am sorry.
Winners for the various comps were:
Single Rapier A
1st Travis McKenzie Scholar Victoria
2nd Edward Craig Melbourne Fencing Society
3rd Liam Schofield The School of Historical Fencing
Single Rapier B
1st Ned Brabner Melbourne Messer Club
2nd Victor Ngo Scholar Victoria
3rd Adi Ringma Scholar Victoria
Rapier Masters (50+)
1st Jason Metcalfe The School of Historical Fencing
Rapier Underrepresented Genders
1st Valerie Bright The School of Historical Fencing
Sidesword A
1st Daniel Pope Scholar Victoria
2nd Travis McKenzie Scholar Victoria
3rd Alessandro Contu Scherma Storica VTAA
Sidesword B
1st Anthony Duong Scholar Victoria
2nd Adi Ringma Scholar Victoria
3rd Valerie Bright The School of Historical Fencing
Sidesword Underrepresented Genders
1st Valerie Bright The School of Historical Fencing
Longsword A
1st Travis McKenzie Scholar Victoria
2nd Jack Jones Scholar Victoria
3rd Gindi Wauchope The School of Historical Fencing
Longsword B
1st Isaac King Fechtschule Victoria
2nd Jiacheng Richard Zou Adelaide Sword Academy
3rd Stuart Willis The School of Historical Fencing
