Wits’ very own represents South Africa at u/20 fencing championship in Angola
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South Africa’s Junior Epee team placed second, bringing home a silver medal.
Fencing is a tough sport and making it big is a challenge, but that has been no issue for Uzair Solomons who recently competed in the Junior U20 Fencing Championships in Angola as a representative of South Africa. Solomons is a second-year mechanical engineering student at Wits who has just as much brains as he does brawn, earning him a chance to represent his country at a continental level.
South Africa’s Junior Epee team placed second, bringing home a silver medal, which is a stellar achievement that he can be proud of. Fencing is not new to Solomons, having started his journey in the sport in 2021 after his high school history teacher brought a fencing club to his school. He fell in love with the sport and subsequently joined that club, which eventually led him to join Wits University’s fencing club when he became a student in 2024.
“It was an exhilarating experience, especially given how much work, how many hours of training and the amount of money I ended up spending with travel to qualify and compete,” he said, about his experience competing at the tournament in Angola.
Recounting his experience, Solomons mentioned how his experience at the tournament helped him appreciate his position as a fencer in South Africa. “It really gave me a greater appreciation for the little things we have in South Africa, things like drinkable tap water for example. From a competitive standpoint, sabre in South Africa has a long way to go, so it was nice to compete with opponents from outside the country and to see how the athletes in other parts of the continent fence.”
Like many student athletes, he must work hard to balance both his schoolwork and his fencing career, a truth he has reconciled with. His advice to many young student athletes was to work hard and train hard, but to prioritise their mental and emotional health. “I can attest to this from personal experience, having had to move clubs last year because my previous club had become a source of a lot of emotional distress… I wasn’t progressing, immediately upon switching to TFS, I saw a lot of improvement in my fencing as my mental state improved. Honestly, it’s something that isn’t talked about as much in sports as it probably should be.”
Solomons has put everything into becoming a stellar fencer, and he is already making that goal a reality. In addition to improving as a fencer overall, he intends to get called up to the senior team and eventually compete in the Olympics. These goals seem well within his reach given his work ethic and dedication and Wits Sports wishes him the best.
