Bas Verwijlen

Back to the main page

The BasCast
Listen to Bas' interviews and updates. Click here for our podcast page, or visit our iTunes page to watch the video podcast. (Podcast direct link, .m4v, 25 megs.)

About Bas's Fencing

We asked Bas about his history and background with the sport:

Hi Bas!

Happy New Year!! to all FP Crew!

What are your goals for this sport?

My goal is to get a medal at the 2008 Olympics of Beijing. For the European fencers i think it is extra hard to qualify, but I think when you qualify as an European than you have a big chance for a medal.

How did you start fencing?

When I was five years old I started fencing. My grandfather was the coach of the dutch modern pentathlon, later he became a fencing coach and had is own club. My father started his own club too when he was about 30 years old. He coached me from the beginning, he also qualified one epee fencer for the 2004 Olympics.

What was your finest Moment At the 2005 World Championships, apart from your interview with Fencing Pictures?

My best moment was reaching the quarter finals in Leipzig, I was 11-14 behind with only a few seconds left and i fought until the last second and won.

What don't we know about you?

I like Indoor/Outdoor Soccer very much and I play with my friends in a competition when I don't have to fence. Because of the good results the Dutch Olympic Federation gave the fencers an A-location to train better for the 2008 Olympics.

Bas fenced in the Masters!

We recently caught up with him after the recent Masters tournament. How did he do?

The Masters were cool, I beat Kolobkov very clear, 15-8 but [in] the bout for 3th and 4th I lost to Olympic Champion Fischer.

They wore cameras attached to the mask during the fencing:

The Camera was a bit heavy on the mask, but after all it was ok... the footage of it on the screen was not so good from quality, but it was funny.