Fencing British Youth Championships South West Qualifier

Great news from Fencing at the weekend in the South West county Qualifier for the British Youth Championships, which will take place in Sheffield during the Bank Holiday weekend 29^th-30^th Aprll • - 1 ^st May.

Plymouth College was represented with 15 fencers in eight categories for both genders and, with the exception of U14 boys, we will have Plymouth College representatives in each age-group fencing at the finals. Starting with the girls; in the U 18 category, Catherine Bishop claimed second place and qualified, Tia SimmsLymn got a bye. A gold medal for Taylor Foxwell-Moss in the U16 event with Emma Andrews and Katie Miles joint third place meaning that they all qualified, together with Georgina Mitchell. Abagael Black U14 and Martha Miles U12 both qualified in true style by winning golds as well.

In the boys event Tomas Maksimovic qualified third in the U 18 category and Leon Payton qualified in the U12 category winning a silver medal. Ben Andrews was given a bye for the U16 category. Following a successful run of international performances in Austria, Denmark, France and Luxembourg, Ben is now ranked No.l in Great Britain (UI 7). With another year to go in his current age category Ben has exceeded expectations and is the only Cadet on the British Team to have achieved a top 32 finish at all the international competitions nominated by British Fencing in the 2016-2017 season, in fact, the only British fencer to have done so this year.  With a highest ranking of 13th at international level Ben's official European ranking is 40th in the UI 7's. This puts him in a great position for the European Championships which take place in the last week of February in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, for which he is one of only four chosen to represent Great Britain in the Mens (UI 7) Epee. Congratulations to all our Fencers and their coaches, Michal Janca and Pete Barrett, on these excellent results.