Camden fencers look sharp at British Youth Championship

Camden Fencing Club sent 18 members to the British Youth Championship at the England Institute of Sport in Sheffield, and they returned with five medals – including three golds.

The tournament covered six weapons across 24 age categories and attracted around 940 fencers who qualified from their regions.

Camden’s Jonathon Webb won the gold in the Under-18 boys’ sabre, defeating William Halliwell 15-12 in the final, while Nathan Potter took the bronze after losing 15-10 in the semi-final.

Kajetan McDonnell picked up another gold in the Under-12 boys’ sabre, defeating Orlando Davies 10-4 in the final – and Jean-Baptiste Baigneres dominated the Under-12 foil age group, which had 71 entrants, beating Myles Ashworth 10-1 in the final.

This was a notable double for the club as they won with two different weapons in the same age group.

Meanwhile, Matthew Pease got the bronze in the Under-14 sabre, losing 15-13 to Sam McCellan in the semi-finals.

Four other members of the club reached the last eight or ‘final tableau’ of their competitions.

Ben Stezaker was seventh in the Under-14 boys’ foil, Christian Lindsey was eighth in the Under-16 boys’ sabre and Lumeng Yang was fifth in the Under-14 girls’ sabre, while Gabrielle Black came seventh in the Under-16 girls’ sabre.

Sam McKinley, Tully Hyams, Benjamin Amsalem, Hannah Nelson, Zac Klein, Mark Ombriomo, Sophia Yang, Eden Amsalem and Achilles Bergne also fought well.