Newham Swords Club Manager, Linda Strachan, delivered fencing to around 100 school children, as part of the Girls Active Camp. This Camp, run by the Youth Sport Trust, took place at Loughborough University and was a great success.
Newham Swords are proud to announce that GB U20 international, Kamal Minott (UK School Games and Junior Commonwealth Gold Medallist), and U17 International, Emilija Lukaite (recently crowned U23 National Champion) have both been selected to represent GB at this month’s U23 European Championships which will take place Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Well done Kamal and Emilija!!
GB Number 1, Jai Birch, and fellow GB U20 International, Rajan Rai made history by taking a Team bronze at the 2016 Junior World Fencing Championships, held in France. They fenced with sheer guts and determination to beat the World number 1 ranked junior team, the USA, in the last 8 before losing to the eventual gold medalists, Japan, in the last 4.
They then went on to beat Latvia in the fight off for bronze for a fantastic end to their season and junior careers. Rajan and Jai now move on to seniors. Well done Raj and JaI!!
Congratulations also to Newham Swords Head Coach, Pierre Harper, who played a major part in this result having worked hard with Jai for the last ten years and with Raj for the last 6. Pierre can now add this outstanding achievement to the silver medal gained by the GB Men’s Foil Team at the 2010 Cadet European Championships, the bronze medal gained by the GB Men’s Foil Team at the 2013 Junior European Championships, and the gold and silver individuals medals won by Paul Wedge and Tony Bartlett at the 2016 World Veteran Championships – a truly World Class coach!! Well done Pierre!!
Khalam Contractor took his third medal of the season when taking bronze in the U9 Category, at the London Junior Tournament.
This was followed by Teagan Williams-Stewart‘s bronze in the U15 Girls Age Group. Well done Khalam and Teagan!!
Khalam with his bronze medal from LPJS London Foil in the U9 boys category
GB U17 International, Alice Campbell, achieved a personal best when she made the top 16 of the Birmingham International Senior Tournament, held on the 26th March.
“This is an incredible result for Alice, given that she is still only a cadet achieving such a result in a major senior tournament”, said Club Manager, Linda Strachan.
Newham Swords Fencing Club is very proud of the fact that it has just been shortlisted for three of the ten awards to be presented at this year’s British Fencing Awards.
We have been shortlisted for Performance Coach of the Year (through Pierre Harper), Innovation Award of the Year (through Linda Strachan’s work on the ‘Muslim Girls Fence’ project), and Club of the Year.
Well done to all those involved and good luck at the British Fencing Awards Ceremony which will take place on Saturday, April 16th.
Rising young fencing star, Khalam Contractor, took his second medal of the season when taking bronze in the U9 Category at the Finchley Foil National Leon Paul Junior Event, held last weekend. Contractor was undefeated in the first round and lost only two fights in his second round to secure the bronze medal for Newham Swords.
Contractor is now preparing for the Newham Swords Junior Series Event (taking place at Sports Dock later this month), and for the U10 National Championships, taking place in May.
“Khalam is an extremely talented young fencer who has already mastered a number of complex techniques in his training despite being only eight years of age. His sheer determination to win and the effort he puts into his training are the reasons why he is has a very good future ahead of him”, said Head Swords Coach, Pierre Harper.