Nine fencers from the ZFW club in Hampstead more than held their own at the largest international competition in the world for children.

Ham & High: ZFW Fencing Club's David Jacob-Sosnov with his trophyZFW Fencing Club's David Jacob-Sosnov with his trophy (Image: Archant)

Over 2,000 competitors from across the globe descended on Wroclaw, Poland, for the World Challenge Wratislava.

Competitions were held in three weapons: foil, epee and sabre, across three age categories: U11, U13 and U15, for both genders.

The nine from Hampstead were all in the foil competitions with the top performers being Amelie Tsang, who won bronze in U11 girls’ foil from 140 participants, and David Jacob-Sosnov, who took a medal of the same colour in the U11 boys’ foil from 182.

Other ZFW fencers gave credible performance in their first international competition with Dario Stenbeck-Shiavo making the top 64 out of 240 in the U15 and Ben Turner reaching the last-32 in the U11.

Ham & High: ZFW Fencing Club's Richard KruseZFW Fencing Club's Richard Kruse (Image: Archant)

The club were also celebrating another good performance from senior star Richard Kruse.

Kruse, who just missed out on a medal at the Rio Olympics, finished fifth in the Grand Prix held in Long Beach, USA.

Richard beat a very fast Korean fencer in the round of 64 before beating Russian Dimitri Rigin.

A superb performance against Frenchman Enzo Lefort took him to the quarter finals but he couldn’t find the same formula as he lost to Olympic champion Danielle Garozzo.

Ham & High: ZFW Fencing Club's Richard Kruse with his coach Ziemek WojciechowskiZFW Fencing Club's Richard Kruse with his coach Ziemek Wojciechowski (Image: Archant)

This is second top-eight result for Kruse in the four competitions he has had since Rio.

He still has the World Cup in St Petersburg, a Grand Prix in Shanghai and the European Championships in Tbilisi ahead of him before he goes to the World Championships in Leipzig in July.