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2007 Belek TUR April 14

Day 7
Belek, Turkey
By Bill Ward
 
The Curse of the Cup
 
(nearly one month ago)  A long-fingered hand, palm festooned with saber calluses, grasps the mouse and clicks on the the screen.  The dread URL  www.fie.ch activates, and the ominous portent appears upon the LCD screen which glows with a light both sickly and blue.  “Competitions…..Rankings…..Junior …….”  As the numbers scroll across the screen, eyes widen in horror, and an unearthly shriek pierces the ether:  “NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!”
 
(Today, day 7 of the World Championships)  It’s tough to become a champion.  It’s even tougher to repeat as champion.  Pressure comes from every direction:  coaches, parents, competitors with fire in their eyes, the Kofte-cooking lady in the outdoor food court who keeps drawing feint-and-parry diagrams in the flour of her cook top.
 
When things go well, everyone’s a genius.  When expectations, realistic or not, go unmet, everyone has a scapegoat.  Some blame training, some blame game-day preparation, some blame Aaron and Toni Spelling.  (OK, they WERE responsible for the decline of Western Civilization, but that’s another story.)  The mob of pitchfork and torch-bearing fencers and officials besieging our villa last night were demanding we throw down our daily training supply of falafel beans and Nick Evangelista DVDs, before disaster strikes the Team event two days from now.
 
But of all those pointing fingers in the aftermath of the failure of the heavily-favored American to
repeat as Junior World Champion, I, and I alone know the real reason.
 
It’s the Curse of the World Cup Championship.
 

You can watch the bout USA-RUS at fencingchannel.tv