Sainsbury's UK School Games : All A Bout Fencing

Richard Lane

All A Bout Fencing

5 June 2009, 3:46 pm

By Nicole Van Dijken

In the coming months we will feature all ten UK School Games sports giving you an insight into everything interesting and unique about the sport. In this first feature, British Fencing Youth Development Manager, Neil Brown chats to the UK School Games about the sport of Fencing...

How does fencing fit into the UK School Games?

Fencing was included in the very first UK School Games in Glasgow 2006. Every year a total of 96 athletes compete in Fencing, each representing one of the four home countries England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

There are individual and team events in foil, epee and sabre in both men's and women's competition. The age group is set at 'under 18 years' in 2009, which is the first year to allow older athletes into the Games. Previously the age limit was 17 years.

Which UK School Games competitors have gone on to achieve even greater success?

At the 2008 U20 European Championships in Amsterdam, 23 of the 24 British fencers were UK School Games graduates. One of the fencers, Corinna Lawrence, who previously won three gold medals & one silver medal in the UK School Games, achieved a bronze medal in the Championships.

Also, Ed Jefferies who came fifth in the Glasgow UK School Games 2006, went on to win a silver medal at the U20 World Championships in Belfast 2009.

Name some of history's most famous fencers

Famous people who loved to fence include Napoleon, Byron, Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, Michaelangelo, Henry VIII, Mozart, Marcel Marceau, Mussolini and Churchill who was a schoolboy National Champion.

What is the most interesting and quirky fact you know about fencing?

The tip of the fencing weapon is the second fastest moving object in sport; the first is a bullet.

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