Blademasters Academy sweeps Cork longsword podium at IHFL 2026

Blademasters Academy put three fencers on the Longsword - Tier B Open Steel podium in Cork, with Samuele Ragazzini taking first, Frank Justice second and Remi Pitiot third. In a 21-fighter bracket, that clean sweep stood out immediately, especially with Colin Power of Goats Head Historical Fencing taking fourth and breaking the academy run just below the medals.

The Cork leg was the second leg of the Irish Historical Fencing League 2026 in Cork City, and Tier B was part of a wider weekend that also included Sidesword and Buckler Open Steel and Longsword Tier A Open Steel. Saturday's Sidesword and Buckler ran from 14:30 to 20:00, while both longsword divisions ran Sunday from 10:00 to 20:00. The schedule listed 24 slots for Sidesword and Buckler and 48 slots for the longsword events, giving the meet the kind of size that makes a full podium takeover hard to dismiss as a fluke.

The upper bracket was not a closed shop for one club. Thomas Lee of Noble Science Academy Dublin shared fifth place with Martin Claffey Healion, Michal Sworzeniowski and Luke O'Keefe, showing that the field drew from several clubs and regions before the medals settled on Blademasters. Against that spread, Ragazzini, Justice and Pitiot still held the top three places, with Ragazzini at gold and Justice at silver in the day-two results posted for the division.

That is why the story matters as a club-development marker, not just a results line. A Tier B sweep in a 21-fighter Open Steel bracket points to more than one strong athlete: it suggests consistent coaching, a shared tactical framework and a training pool deep enough to keep producing fencers who can beat different opponents on the same day. If the Cork leg was meant to measure league strength, Blademasters left with the clearest signal in the results sheet, and the next question is whether those Tier B names are already moving toward Tier A contention later in the IHFL season.