Alpe Adria – Udine Junior World Cup

As Junior World Cup events go, this has to be one of the best, if not the best in my opinion.

Introduction

This competition seemed to come and go really quickly. We flew in relatively late the day before, went straight to weapons control and then to dinner. We flew back the evening after the fencing, so we were in Udine for probably less than 24 hours.

However, it was a great competion with a really high standard of fencing, plus plenty of emotions on display throughout the day from both the fencers and the coaches. As Junior World Cup events go, this has to be one of the best, if not the best in my opinion.

Years attended – 2020

Venue

Palazzo per l’atletica indoor “Ovidio Bernes”

It’s a fantastic venue with a good space between the pistes, seating along the back with some food/drink on sale, but what really makes it is the big window with an amazing view out to the alps in the distance.

Event Videos

Filippo Armaleo ITA v. Nikita Koshman UKR (:8 fight – 2020)
Andrii Opansenko UKR v. Marco Malaguti ITA (L128 fight – 2020)
Enrico Piatti ITA v. Dmitrii Shvelidze RUS (L16 fight – 2020)

Hotels

I stayed at the Hotel Ramandolo which was around a ten minute walk from the venue. It did the job nicely. There were some restaurants and shops nearby which was handy. No complaints really, would stay there again if I was going to this competition.

Hotel Ramandolo

Coupe du Monde Basel – Trophée de Bâle

Top tier competion. great venue, plenty of hotels nearby and some wonderful places to eat.

Introduction

Located right on the France and Switzerland border and only a short journey from EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg. Our one visit here was fantastic – would have been 2 but due to Covid and a different application of restrictions by France and Switzerland it decided the competion should be moved to Winterthur in 2022. Top tier competion. great venue, plenty of hotels nearby and some wonderful places to eat.

Pfaffenholz Sports Center

Years attended – 2020

Venue

Pfaffenholz Sports Center

A modern sports facility that quite literally is half in Switzerland and half in France. Inside, it’s quite imposing – almost like a gladitorial arena with it being sunken in to a very imposing concrete structure, with banked concrete seats one side and a viewing balacony all around. There was a smaller side hall, but I didn’t get any pictures of that.

Event Videos

Giulio Gaetani ITA v. Ian Hauri SUI (Team competition – 2020)

Hotels

I stayed in the Hôtel ibis Aéroport Bâle Mulhouse which was a walkable distance to the venue. No complaints there – note that it tends to be slighly cheaper staying on the French side of Basel.

Shops & Places To Eat

We had an excellent meal at Restaurant Tilleul and a few drinks and snacks at Week-End Brasserie. We also gave La Diligence a go, but they literally ignored us for about 15 minutes, so we left.