Gilkes making steady advance in fencing

By Morissa Lindsay

As a sports person, there is no greater feeling than writing your name on history’s page and that is exactly what Sanojah ‘Sunni’ Gilkes continues to do as she has become the highest-ranked Barbados Fencing Federation competitor.

The 18-year-old ended her 2021 to 2022 season competing in two divisions and therefore earned herself an overall world ranking of 287 in the junior division and 325 in the senior which is the best by a national competitor at both the World Junior and Senior levels.

It has been a fantastic year for Gilkes who also became the first Barbadian fencer to complete a full year on the USA domestic regional circuit and the first to achieve the highest ranking ever on the FIE list.

And of course, the firsts just kept coming for Gilkes as she also became the first Barbadian to reach the direct elimination round at a World Championships and to fence at the Junior USA National Championships.

Gilkes, who is expected to represent Barbados in fencing at the Commonwealth Games has had a busy season competing in several tournaments from regional, zonal and international events which made her world ranking possible.

The talented Barbadian fencer stood out in the junior division, finishing ninth at the inaugural Junior PanAm Games that took place in December 2021 in Cali, Colombia.

She captured a well-deserved bronze medal at the Southern RJCC also held in December 2021 at Myrtle Beach in South Carolina.

This year Gilkes continued from where she left off in 2021 as she came 20th at the Fairfax Challenge RJCC which was held in May 2022 at Fairfax in Virginia.

At the FIE World Junior Championships held in April in the host country of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Gilkes was 104th competing against the world’s best. She was also 110th at the United States of America (USA) National Championships and that was this month in Minneapolis.

Those performances ensured that Gilkes was 31st overall in the season-long USA regional standings of the Gold Coast in region six for fencing.

In the senior division, Gilkes is currently ranked 325 in the FIE senior world rankings and boasts of being the sixth highest ranked Caribbean fencer, behind two Cubans, two fencers from the Dominican Republic and Susanna Fornaris of the United States Virgin Islands.

Her performances in that division have been commendable with 44th at the Senior Pan Am Fencing Championships held June 2022 in Asuncion, Paraguay.

She was also 117th at the Senior World Championships which took place this month in Cairo, Egypt. (morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb)