‘Izzy’ fenced well on GB debut at the Euros and her next stop is China!

​Turkey was experiencing a cold snap, with blizzards in Istanbul and very cold temperatures across the country, which meant for a very cold venue.

With Howser having missed much of the season with injury, her seeding had plunged and she had a tough draw in the first round.

In near freezing temperatures in the venue, it was all about the start, but a 30-minute wait for a referee did not work well for her and she lost her first 2 matches.

In her 3rd bout, after trailing 3-0, she beat Finland’s Vasilisa Shevchenko, 5-3.

Going into her last match she needed to win to make the cut, but her fight was against the top seed in her poule, European No 20, Hanna Tehres from Hungary.

Howser pulled out some of her best fencing, but could not get over the line and lost 5-4 to be eliminated.

In the team event GB were seeded 18th and drew the 15th seeds from Belgium, which should have been a really tight match.

In Howser’s first match she was up against one of the girls she lost to in the individual event, but she turned the tables with a 5-3 win against Lily Szekeres, which helped GB to a strong 15-6 lead and the lead held to the end of the match for a 45-28 win.

In the last 16, GB lost to 2nd seeds Hungary, but in the fight-off matches they beat the 10th seeds from Romania, lost to 11th seeds Germany before losing to 4th seeds Spain to finish in 12th place, well above their starting seeding.

With 3 of the 4 girls in the GBR team (including Howser) able to compete in the age group next year, the result is pretty strong, especially as the majority of teams had lots of final year fencers.

Bearing that in mind next year’s event will be interesting given Team GB’s additional experience.

With so much time off for injury, Howser came into the event slightly below her best, which can be exposed at this level.

But with 6 weeks until she represents GB at the World Championships in China, she has the chance to get fully up to speed.