Hampstead club’s young fencers among the medals

Ham & High: ZFW coach Peter Barwell with young fencer David SosnorZFW coach Peter Barwell with young fencer David Sosnor (Image: Archant)

Hampstead fencing club ZFW saw their youngest competitors bring home a haul of medals from the British Youth Championships in Sheffield.

Gold, silver and bronze were secured by the boys and girls across a variety of age groups at the biggest event of the year, with Dario Stenbeck-Schiavo winning under-14 foil bronze.

“The fights got progressively harder, however, I was able to keep my nerve,” said Stenbeck-Schiavo, who trains regularly alongside his clubmates at South Hampstead High School.

Dylan Daniel, who has competed for England at under-15 level, also shone in the under-14 event in a field of 69 fencers to make the finals and win silver for the second time in three years.

Head coach Ziemek Wojciechowski called the outcome a “fantastic achievement” as Alberto Mascioli finished 12th and Carlo Tarnai 35th.

The club fielded six fencers in a field of 67 in the under-12 foil, with David Sosnov battling his way through to the final to claim silver.

He said: “Narrowly winning the semi-finals, I lost to an excellent Scottish fencer (by a score of 10-8) in the final and finished with a silver medal.”

ZFW’s Ben Turner finished ninth, with Leo Lim 17th, Scott Gibbons 21st and Noah Goryn 32nd.

Amelie Tsang finished third out of 54 in the under-12 girls’ foil, having won the under-10 title a year earlier, and said: “I enjoyed myself very much and I am looking forward to coming back next year.”

And there was gold in the under-14 epee for ZFW’s Joe Donaghue, who represented Scotland West at the British Championships and also finished among the top eight in the foil competition a day later.

Wojciechowski said: ”Joe’s performance was impressive. He is a very gifted and competent fencer, capable of great victories.”

ZFW’s senior fencers were also in action, with four-time Olympian Richard Kruse securing the men’s foil crown at the British Championships at the University of East London.

Kruse fenced with confidence and eased through the field to claim the top prize, beating clubmate and fellow Olympian James-Andrew Davis, who claimed bronze.

Peter Barwell finished eighth, with Thomas Corlett 12th, David Standen 18th, Matthew Abrahams 20th and Nikita Kuznetsov 86th.

Meanwhile, in Minsk, Alexander Choupenitch was crowned European under-23 champion after fending off a field of nearly 60 highly accomplished fencers from more than 20 countries.

The toughest fight for Czech international Choupenitch was against Italian Guillaume Bianchi in the last eight, which he won by a score of 15-13.

In the semi-finals, he beat Alexandre Sido from France 15-10, and to secure gold Choupenitch comfortably beat Russian rival Kirill Borodachev 15-3.

Alexander Peter Lloyd, one of Great Britain’s most talented under-23 fencers, came into the top 32 having had a challenging bout against Italy’s Francesco Ingargiola.

“It was a good start to the match, however Ingargiola built a lead in the middle of the match which he held on to,” he said.