London HEMA Open

And that's a wrap for LHO 2026 - Europe's highest rated longsword tournament of all time (beating out the 2019 Minsk European Games), and the first time the top 3 longsword fencers have been in the same event since 2016.

A massive thank you to our volunteers and judging staff, without whom this event would not be possible. Thanks to all our sponsors for the wonderful prizes, and of course, thank you to all the fencers who travelled from far and wide to make this year's LHO the best one yet.

If you want to relive the weekend, the livestreams are available on our Youtube channel. Check out the results on HEMA Ratinge here:
https://hemaratings.com/events/details/2757/

Photography credits go to .hematog

At London HEMA Open this weekend, something happened that hasn't happened in exactly 10 years (and one month).

For the first time since Norway Open 2016 the three top-rated fighters in the Mixed & Men's Steel Longsword category competed in the same tournament, with Stephen Cheney, Miro Lahtela and Antoni Olbrychski all having a shot at both taking the gold at the tournament and claiming the #1 spot on HEMA Ratings.

After knocking out Cheney in the quarter finals, Olbrychski faced off against Lahtela for the gold. This is the third time Antek and Miro have faced off in a final, after Helsinki Longsword Open 2024 and SoCal Swordfight 2025. The previous two matchups both went to Antek, but this time Miro came away with the gold.

After the dust had settled and the results had been submitted to HEMA Ratings we are in the absolutely bananas situation where the top 3 are not only almost 70 points ahead of #4, but they're all within a single point of each other!

Congrats to all fighters, and let's hope it's not another 10 years until we see all the top 3 in the same tournament again!

You can see the full results here: https://hemaratings.com/events/details/2757/

We’ve had a schedule change - we’re running early, so we’ll be shifting our finals this evening to 18:30. View them on our livestream!

Pools have changed due to last minute dropouts! Check your schedule to make sure you’re going to the right pools on HEMA Scorecard:

https://www.hemascorecard.com/infoSummary.php?e=1075&t=0&m=0 #

www.hemascorecard.com

Our next sponsor is SPES Historical Fencing. SPES needs no introduction - they're HEMA's biggest and most well-known equipment manufacturer. Based in Poland, they've been making gear for HEMA since 2007. This experience has made them among the best in HEMA gear manufacturers.

SPES are providing us with some vouchers for our medalists.

Find out more at https://histfenc.eu/

Up next is Regenyei Armoury - one of the most stalwart names in HEMA weapons manufacturing. A Regenyei feder is often a new fencer's first ever weapon, and for good reason: they're reliable, affordable, and high quality. Regenyei are sponsoring us with some vouchers for our medallists.

Find out more at https://regenyei.com/

Our next sponsor is Armstreet!

ArmStreet is a manufacturer of top-quality medieval costumes for history-related events, beautiful fantasy dresses, costumes for LARP, handmade accessories and jewelry. ArmStreet was founded in 2003 as a personal eBay project, and quickly grew into one of the largest, most recognisable international companies which designs, produces and supplies history-related and fantasy products to more than 35 countries.

They're kindly providing us with two sabres for the winners of the sabre tournaments.

Find out more about them at armstreet.com

Our next Sponsor is Zoltan Armoury, a new UK-based manufacture of protective equipment. Their gloves are some of the best on the market, and you'll be able to try them on in person at LHO. They're also bringing some gorgets as prizes for our winners.

Visit their website at zoltanarmoury.com to learn more!

Pools are now available on HEMA Scorecard! As always, these are almost certain to change. If you're in a tournament with two rounds of pools, please make sure to arrive an hour before the first set of pools start.

https://hemascorecard.com/infoSummary.php?e=1075&m=0&t=0 #

For our next sponsor, we've got the HEMA Shop providing us with £50 vouchers to be used at their store.

The HEMA Shop is an invaluable resource for the HEMA community, providing high quality, good value and most importantly, readily available HEMA equipment.

Visit the HEMA Shop to see their range of equipment:
https://www.thehemashop.com/