British Youth Championships 2025 Sheffield

A very busy May Bank Holiday weekend saw 7 Cambridge Sword fencers travel to Sheffield to represent the Eastern Region in the British Youth Championships 2025. Our qualifiers on the day were Olivier, Victoria, Dan, Rosie, Ethan, Inigo and Emily. Sadly, Freddie and Dan M who had also qualified in January, were unable to attend. Coach Bob and Coach Matt were there in attendance with Matt doing double duty as referee.

First up was Olivier who was the lone fencer on Saturday in the U12 Boys. It was his first time at the BYC and he completely smashed his poules to seed in 3rd place. In his Direct Eliminations he swiftly went through from T128 to T16, at which he met England ranked no.2, a favourite to win. He ably defeated his opponent to continue into the finals. An exhausted but determined Olivier continued to battle, but was overcome by a more seasoned fencer. An excellent result for Olivier on his first time, showing great endurance and fencing skill.

On Sunday morning, saw Victoria in the U12 Girls come to the piste. This was her first national event and as a novice fencer, quite daunting to fence in such a large competition. Like Olivier, Victoria was calm and measured, slowly picking off the points where possible from her opponents on piste. Rosie came to give her some fencing advice and Victoria came away with a fantastic poule result, winning 4 out of 6 bouts with two of them 5-0 victory to Victoria! Her poule results saw her seeded 15th out of 45 fencers. She fought equally hard in her first round of DE, but lost to a very experienced fencer by three points.

For Dan who is in the first year of the U14, a tough group to compete in, he valiantly fought in his poules to win half of the bouts. He won one round of DE and then a tough DE, out by a point for a place in T32

Rosie was up next, like Olivier, won all her bouts in her poules to seed in 3rd place. She seemed to have a smooth progression in her DE’s to make it to T8, where she was unable to overcome her opponent on the day. A very good result given she is till undergoing rehabilitation and is in her first year in the U14s.

Day three saw Ethan and Inigio compete in the U16, Ethan winning all but one bout and though Inigo was not at his best form, fenced as well as he could and gained a bye in the first round of DEs. Inigo lost to a more seasoned fencer in T64. Ethan however, went through three rounds of DE and was unable to overcome his opponent in T32.

Lastly Emily who showed spirit in her poules in a group of extremely experience fencers, won one bout and managed to get points in the others. DE saw her against seed no. 6 which was a hard fight but Emily continued to fight to her best abilities.

Results

U12 Olivier – Silver out of 83

Victoria – 19 out of 45

U14 Rosie – 5 out of 64

Dan S – 48 out of 98

U16 Ethan – 22 out of 67

Inigo – 54 out of 67

U18 Emily 27 out of 31

Well done to all our fencers for trying their best and even against the odds, fence as hard as they could. Regardless of final placing, it took real courage to enter and attend the finals to get on the piste in a massive venue with the maximum number of people in each age category. Amazing results as well by Olivier Rosie to make the last eight, and to Victoria our novice, Ethan and Emily for their place in T32.

Special thanks to our coaches Bob and Matt for their work and support over the weekend

Cambridge Sword is proud of you all

Pay particularly attention to the magnificent squad badge spotted by Olivier - contact Sarah to join our U12 development squad, our competition squad or our performance squad