The young blade-wielder was part of a five-member South African foil team that exceeded even their own expectations, by winning silver at the recent 2015 Commonwealth Fencing Junior and Cadet Championship, held at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
The City Times visited Wort on Friday, July 24, to find out more about a sport with which most South Africans are relatively unfamiliar.
Wort explained that he was first drawn to the sport around the age of 11 years, when his love of drama, acting and Eisteddfodd opened his eyes to the sport.
“We were doing Shakespeare and I saw it [fencing] in Hamlet,” he said.
“They were competing and I wanted to do it, so we tracked it down and it took off from there.”
His mother Zia, however, said that Gaelan had, since the age of two, always had a “sword” on him.
“He always had a plastic sword on him, and if he didn’t have one he would find a piece of plank – he was always armed with some sort of weapon,” she said.
Modern fencing uses three weapons, and is divided respectively into three competitive scenes: foil, sabre and épée.
Wort specialises in the technically challenging foil scene and believes that a good fencer needs to have a stable technical mentality, mental stamina and speed.
“My coaches always said that you need the speed and strength of a boxer combined with the poise of a ballet dancer and the mind of a chess player.
“The fitness aspect of fencing is brilliant too and that is something that is usually out ruled, especially in direct elimination rounds, which can really take its toll on body and mind,” he added.
When asked about the status quo of fencing in the country he replied: “In South Africa fencing is not that well publicized; most people don’t even know of it, they’ve seen on TV once or twice but don’t know that we do it here.
“It is quite covert in a way and doesn’t have the biggest following.
“The main problem for us is that there are not enough high level fencers to compete at the kind of levels that creates growth.
“More funding would allow us to branch out into all different aspects of the sport.”
He added that it’s more recreational in South Africa as opposed to Europe, America and Asia, where it is extremely professional.
Despite these challenges the South African team that won the silver medal in Cape Town held their own at the championships where 16 countries were represented and over 250 entries participated.
On the achievement Wort commented: “That was absolutely brilliant.
“Coming into the tournament the feeling among the team was that we weren’t expecting to do that well, but we wanted to give them a run for their money.
“No amount of personal training can compare to the experience of an event like this, where fencers have different styles and approaches.
“To win silver was quite prestigious.”
Wort now turns his attentions and focus on qualifying for the 2016 Junior and Cadet World Championships in France.
