TENTERDEN Swords Fencing Club was celebrating a magnificent success by Ralph Johnson against all the odds in the World Veterans Fencing Championships held in Austria.

But the Swords ace survived a dramatic last gasp attack from his German rival in the final to take the bout into extra time where he won with a fine counter riposte.

The championships attracted over 400 fencers from 30 countries and Ralph, already the European Epée Champion for his age category (50-60 years), had to overcome a field of 50 competitors in his event (including four former World Champions), which he did in the most dramatic of circumstances.

Epée fencing has developed from duelling, so the whole of the body is the target and each hit counts for one point.

In his preliminary (seeding) round against six opponents Johnson won four bouts and lost two, giving him 12th seed. The next stage of the competition was direct elimination which required him to win five bouts in a row if he was to take the gold.

The Kent man overcame Bergmann of Germany, the man he had beaten in the Final of the European Championships in Moscow last year to take the title there, by 10-7 and then the Bulgarian Sokolov 10-5.

The third opponent was the vastly experienced Hungarian Erno Kolczonay who in previous years was a longstanding member of the Olympic and World Championship winning Hungarian Epée Team. Johnson never let him get into his stride and came out the winner 10-7 and the field had now been reduced to four fencers.

He drew the Italian Fantoni to whom he had lost heavily in the preliminary round, but lessons had been learnt and this time the outcome was reversed.

Ralph was now in the final where he met his sternest test in the form of Volker Fischer of Germany, former World Champion and winner of a clutch of Olympic and World Team gold medals.

Fischer's trademark power and speed took him to an early 4-1 lead, but Johnson fought back to level it at 8-8.

The normal time limit for the bout (six minutes) had almost expired when Fischer launched a furious attack which hit Ralph just after the time limit and the electric scoring equipment had automatically cancelled the hit because it arrived too late.

The fight resumed for a further minute of extra time. Johnson was given priority on the toss of a coin so that if no decisive hit was scored in that minute he would be the winner.

Fischer could not therefore afford to sit back. His attack was parried and Ralph's riposte hit Fischer on the shoulder to clinch the world crown.