Affiliations

Shannon Comerford has spent a lot of time at her favourite place in Saskatoon. She’s been going to the Salle Seguin Fencing Club for over 10 years and spends at least 10 hours a week training there.

The 25-year-old started fencing more than 15 years ago and has had ample success in that time; she’s been on the junior and senior national teams for years and was part of the Canadian women’s foil team that made history in 2011 when they placed among the top eight teams in the world — the best result by any Canadian women’s foil team.

She recently was awarded a silver medal as part of this year’s Canadian women’s foil team at the Pan American Fencing Championships in Columbia.

Comerford says there’s nothing better than coming home to her favourite place, the Salle Seguin Fencing Club, after successfully competing around the world.

Q. What’s the atmosphere like at the Salle Seguin Fencing Club?
A. It’s not just elite athlete focused. We have rec members; middle-aged and teenagers who are there for recreation. I know they have classes for young kids I think as young as maybe eight years old and older members who are up into their 50s. There’s a wide spectrum of members involved so it’s always positive, it’s always fun. We do have our elite athletes who are there with more of a serious focus, but it’s always a fun and positive atmosphere, no matter what, even if there are a few people who are more serious. It’s for anybody and everybody who wants to come out.

Q. Why is the club your favourite place in Saskatoon?
A. It’s where I spend the majority of my time. I have a lot of friends in Salle Seguin and it’s kind of my get-away-from-everything place. If I’m having trouble in school or stressed out with work or whatever, I can just go there and lay everything out there, work out a good sweat and let all my stress out.

Q. What do you do when you’re at the Salle Seguin?
A. I do other training outside of the Salle, just dry land stuff, but when I’m in the Salle I really focus on the fencing aspect. I work with my personal coach and there’s always going to be lesson-style training. The coach wears a vest and we’re able to hit them all kinds of different ways. There’s some target practice work where we’re working on our aim and accuracy. We always have footwork drills to increase our speed and agility and then there’s sparring. We’re able to suit up and plug in and compete with our teammates.

Q. Do you do anything else other than training while you’re at the club?
A. There are different times throughout the year for different holidays we always get together and have a potluck community thing where everyone brings food. We have laughs and share memories together. There are all kinds of community get-togethers that we have so it’s not always just fencing focused.

Q. Are you training with a specific goal in mind?
A. I was working for qualifying for the 2012 Olympics and unfortunately I suffered a pretty severe injury to my knee and I’ve recently had surgery.

So, my next goal is the 2016 Olympics and I’m hoping to train out of Saskatoon throughout the whole process and hopefully qualify.
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Pan Am Fencing Championships silver medallist Shannon Comerford trains at the Sally Seguin
Fencing Club at 414 First Ave North, her favourite place in Saskatoon. Bridges photo by Michelle Berg