FENCING: Two-time Olympian Evelyn Halls has won her ninth national epee title at the Australian Fencing Championships in Canberra, as she prepares to launch her campaign for a third Olympic Games.

And 20-year-old Jasper Rowley won his first Australian men’s sabre title, and in the process looks almost certain to have booked his ticket for next year’s Olympic qualifiers.

Halls, who competed at the Sydney and Athens Olympics, beat World Veterans gold medalist, Sarah Osvath, in the gold medal bout and says she’d love to go to another Olympics for her nine-year-old daughter, Gabi.

“I was really happened with the way I fenced,” Halls said.

“I really want to be able to bring out that top level of fencing that I know I have, on the world stage and see how far I can go.

“There’s a limited amount of time I have to devote to fencing, and I’m not going to devote more time than that, so I’m just going to try and get as much out of that time as possible.

“It would be really exciting for Gabi, because she wasn’t born when I last went to the Olympics.”

Rowley said his win is a great relief. “There was a lot of nerves coming into today, there was a lot riding on it,” he said.

“The qualification system for Australia is really hard. I went to Rome earlier this year, had two World Cups but had pretty average performances which were hard to bounce back from.

“But the end result is what’s important, so I’m happy with how it’s turned out.”

The 2015 Australian Fencing Championships will continue on Saturday and run through until Monday.

ROSS SOLLY FOR FENCING AUSTRALIA