Young Wellington fencer Piers Gilliver had a very successful competition at the British Disabled Fencing Associations National Wheelchair Championships hosted recently by the Wellington Swords club
18 -year-old Piers won Silver at both Foil and Sabre on Saturday and then went on to win the Gold medal at Epee on Sunday resulting in being joint winner of the Master at Arms trophy for best results across all three weapons.
The national championships attracted a high standard of entry from all over the country including 7 members of the GB paralympic team resulting in a hard-fought and difficult competition.
Piers is coached at Wellington by György Felletãr from Hungary who has trained the Hungarian Paralympic team to gold medals and also with the GB fencers
Wellington Swords Fencing Club has facilities for wheelchair fencing both for those with experience and those interested in starting this exciting sport. The club meets on Monday and Thursday evenings at the Princess Royal Sports Centre at Wellington School where they have a specially designed fencing salle.
Other Swords news
The last couple of weekends have seen Wellington swords Fencers involved in competitions throughout the country ranging from under 11 to Veterans events.
For the veterans Robert Flatt and Jonathan Stanbury were members of the Successful south West Team that retained the Veterans Winton cup ( an inter regional tournament) for the fith consecutive year. Maggie Myers wh oalso fences at Wellington was a member of the Welsh team.
At the Welsh Open Ben Hodgson came 9th, Chris Hay 12th and Nick Clapham 63rd from a field of 95 entries in the Men’s Epee competition. In the Womens Epee Sophie Townsend came 31st and Jessica Gundry 51st (the second highest placing for a cadet fencer) out of an entry of 74. IN the Mens Sabre Zsolt Czainkota who has recently returned to competitive fencing came 36 out of 93.
Meanwhile some of the clubs younger fencers have been competing. At the Bath Leon Paul junior Series Epee in the under 13 age group Thomas Nash came 2nd in his first epee competition with Fergus McKendry coming 11th. Jared Wedge-Thomas came 11th in the Under 15 category.
Naomi Fielder came 3rd in the Girls under 13 Foil at the Premier Junior Foil Series event at Southampton. This was the final event in the series at which Naomi has put in a consistent set of results finishing with an excellent second place in the series as a whole.
In the Docklands British Selection Under 20 Foil competition Jade Clarke (15) came 12th.
Anyone interested in trying fencing or wheelchair fencing is welcome and for further information please contact the club at wellingtonswords@gmail.com