Editor's note: this is part of a series of features being published over the next few weeks on the various sports which make up the 2007 Canada Winter Games.

En guard!

Yukoners will get a rare opportunity to see some of the best young sword-fighers from across the country in action early next month when the Canada Winter Games host the competition at Vanier Catholic Secondary School.

The 10 provinces will compete in the fencing events which run from about 9 a.m. until after 5 p.m. each day from March 5 to March 9.

'I just love to do it. It's lots of fun,' Adrian Symons said in an interview from Souris, Manitoba of the sport he's been learning and training in since he was just six years old.

This will mark Symons' debut to the Games, but it's been a family affair in his household since before he was born.

Symons' dad Stephen has been a fencing coach for 35 years and is currently the president of the Canadian Fencing Federation, while his sister Emma is a Canada Winter Games fencing alumni from the 2003 Games in Bathurst/Campbellton, N.B., where she ranked sixth in the women's team foil.

When Adrian was about 6 1/2, Stephen brought him along to the lessons he taught and Adrian has been fencing ever since.

Now 14, Adrian says he hasn't felt a lot of pressure in following in his big sister's footsteps to the Games, but it does make him want to do better.

With less than a month to Games time, Adrian says he's aiming to do the best he can and ideally would like to win a silver medal, which could also be a birthday highlight for the young man who will turn 15 on March 6 when he's in town for the competition.

After the Games, Adrian wants to make the cadet nationals and eventually sees himself competing at the Olympic level, though he acknowledges that's years away from now.

Adrian's weapon of choice in fencing is the foil, a modern version of a practise dueling sword. In the foil events, hits are only counted when they are on the target's torso. In the modern version of the ancient sport, competitors wear an electronic apparatus which counts the hits that are made.

'It's a well-rounded weapon,' said Adrian, noting he likes the challenge of both skill and speed needed for the foil competition.

The other events in fencing include the epee and the sabre, with each provincial team in the Games permitted to bring nine female and nine male team members. Each member can only participate in one event though.

It's in the epee competition that hits are counted anywhere on the body, again with the electronic gear. The epee is the modern version of a dueling sword, and is heavier than the foil with a bi-angular blade.

The sabre, meanwhile, is the modern cavalry sword with hits scored anywhere above the waist. Unlike the epee and foil, sabre fighters can use either the point of the sword or the cutting edges.

The epee and foil disciplines only allow the pointed end of the sword to be used.

While the men's teams will compete in all three disciplines, the women's teams will face off in the foil and epee competitions.

Max Stearns is also a member of the Manitoba team who will compete in the sabre event.

This will mark his second entrance into the Canada Games after competing at the 2003 event. There he placed second in the team event and ninth individually.

This time around, he's got a better understanding of what the Games are all about as well as his own fencing style.

'There's a little less anxiety, but just as much fun,' he said from Winnipeg.

Like Adrian, Stearns enjoys both the physical and mental challanges that come with fencing.

'You really need to be very strategic,' he said. 'It's just tons of fun.'

Stearns had started out fencing in foil, but after he got a new coach a few years ago who was more sabre oriented he switched his weapon of choice to the sabre.

The sabre is a little faster and a bit more of a cut-throat competition than the foil, he said.

After the Games, Stearns will turn his attention to the international stage as he get set to travel to Turkey where he'll compete at the Junior Cadet World Fencing Championships in April.

As he continues his fencing career, he also has his sights on competing at the 2012 Olympics which will be held in London, England. As he did with the Canada Games, he would ideally like to make the Canadian Olympic team twice in his career.

Also setting his sights on the Olympics is Marc-Andre Leblanc, who competed for New Brunswick in the epee event and was ranked number one in the 2003 Canada Winter Games.

In an interview from Ottawa where he's now based, Leblanc said it was through the Games that he realized he could go even further in his fencing career.

'It really opened up my horizons,' he said.

Being from the small town of Shediac, N.B., at the time the Canada Games seemed to be the 'be all and end all'.

As he got ready for the national event he learned about the mental and physical preparation that goes into training for major competitions.

After he came out with a gold in the epee event at the Games, people began recognizing who he was, he said.

Following the Games, Leblanc has gone on to compete at two junior world championships and is currently a member of the Canadian senior team.

'I'm slowly working my way towards (the Olympics),' he said.

In a separate interview, Stephen Symons said he expects Quebec and Manitoba may dominate the men's sabre at the Games. Quebec could also rank fairly high in the women's foil along with Ontario.

Alberta, he said, has a strong team in place for the men's foil competition, while the men's epee could be a battle between Saskatchewan, Quebec and New Brunswick.

Each team can have up to 15 fencers made up of nine males and six females, all 17-and-under as of Dec. 31, 2006.

Fencing first became part of the Canada Games in 1971, but took a hiatus from 1979 until 1991 when it returned to the national event which was hosted in Prince Edward Island that year.