On the May Day Bank Holiday in 2023, Gravesham Fencing Club were proud to have two qualifiers for the British Youth Championships (BYC’s), at the English Institute of Sport (EIS) in Sheffield. Both girls (Sofia, left and Claudia, right, with Coach Will) had qualified due to their impressive results, earlier in the year, at the South East Region Championship. With invites sent out by British Fencing, accommodation booked and travel plans made, Sofia was ready to fence, in her age, on the Sunday, with Claudia, in her age group, having her competition on the Monday. Neither girl was seeded particularly high going into the competition, as neither has been in the sport for very long.
On the Sunday, Sofia’s age was split into 8 poules of 6 fencers and 1 poule of 7. Due to the size of the event, the pistes were split over two areas, with Sofia finding herself in the main hall on piste 10. Her opponents stemmed from London, South West, Southern, West Midlands and the North East, meaning that she had little knowledge of those that she was about to fence. Nerves overcame in the first match losing 2-5, the next two losses came to fencers who were in the top half of the competitors seedings, whilst her final poule loss came to a fencer who is seeded number 4 in the country! Despite each loss Sofia fenced well and gained plenty of points off of her opponents and this, along with a 5-3 win, saw Sofia 43rd for the direct elimination. She was to fight the 23rd seed, from the poules in this competition (a fencer who is seeded 6th and ranked 19th nationally). A good start saw Sofia amass points from her practised competitor, however the experience of the London girl took over and Sofia lost 15-4, meaning the end of her competition.
Claudia was up on the Monday, arriving at the event early, to sign in and familiarise herself with the premier event in the GB Youth Calendar. Sofia’s words of advice from the day before were to “just enjoy it”, whereas the parent-to-parent advice had been to steady the nerves with “a large glass of Australian red” – not wise with long car journey home!
Claudia saw herself drawn into a poule of 7 fencers, with another 6 poules of 7 fencers and 1 poule of 6 girls. Like Sofia, Claudia had been drawn on a piste in the main arena and, had a familiar face in her poule, with a girl from the Southern region, who previously beaten her and, to her side, another South East girl (and Scotland fencer) on the piste next door. She did not let this distract her and, for her first fight against the girl from Southern region (an old foe), she held her nerves, narrowly losing 3-4. Her middle two bouts were 5-4 wins, followed by a 1-4 loss (to the girl who would go on to take bronze), another loss 2-5 (to the girl who would finish 6th), but she managed to maintain her composure and take the final bout 5-3. She achieved a fantastic 28th place seeding, however, due to a terrible poules round by her DE opponent, she was drawn against another old foe, who she was yet to conquer. The early points were evenly matched, with Claudia managing a couple of double hits. Her opponent managed to draw away, with Claudia achieving a couple of direct hits to stop her opponent from running away with it. However, the opponent, a GB fencer, had the experience and years of know-how to keep the lead until they were timed out at a 5-10 loss to Claudia.
Both girls fenced exceptionally well and maintained their composure in what was a very professional setting, unlike what they have experienced before. At the end of the event Sofia finished 43rd out of 55 national fencers, finished 9th out of the South East fencers (having finished 11th at that competition) and having increased her national seeding from 46 to 40. Claudia had started the event as the bottom seed; finished the event in 35th place out of 55 competitors, being the 5th placed South Eastern fencer and, pulled her seeding up from 55th in the country to 45th. Given that both girls have only been fencing training fully for about a year, had only started competing in 2023, we think that this is an amazing achievement. You have done the club proud and we hope you both go on to achieve much more in your fencing careers. A big thank you to Will for his coaching and support over the weekend and well done girls!