Proud day for Thame young duallists

JUNIOR fencers From Thame Duellists Fencing Club competed in the British Fencing Youth Championships in Sheffield over the recent Bank Holiday weekend.

Hal and Rebekah Seed

The event, the centrepeice of the the season for under 18s fencing, took place at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

Hal Seed, competing in his third British Championships, finished tenth in his age group in the épée discipline on the Saturday and followed that up with a twenty-fifth place finish in the foil event on Sunday.

His top ten finish after a hard day of competition in the epee event could have been even higher. He was eventually knocked out at the last-16 stage, losing 15-14 in an incredibly tight fight which could have gone either way. The only down side to his épée success was that some of his foil opponents on Sunday had not competed in the heat of Saturday’s épée event and so were fresher than he was in the foil competition.

His sister, Rebekah Seed, secured 36th place in the foil competition for her age group. Her performance, in her first British Championships, got stronger through the day; she ended up with three wins out of six in the group stage of her event, despite being drawn in a group containing two opponents who had already represented their country.

Club coach, James Kingston, said: “Over the course of the two days, Hal showed real technical and tactical awareness under pressure. During his final épée bout he was sporting enough to acknowledge an invalid hit that the referee had not spotted properly and would otherwise have awarded to him, which really impressed me. A top ten finish, his best ever British Champs result, was a great reward.

“Rebekah showed that she was also capable of working out how to deal with more experienced opposition as well as the resilience to come back from a really tough start to the day, having to fence two opponents who went on to place in the top ten. I was very proud of both of them.”