Young GB fencer takes gold at Commonwealth Championships – HANNAH LEBOR

One of the UK’s brightest sport stars has won a hat trick of medals for England at the Commonwealth Fencing Championships.

National champion in Women Under-17 epee, 17-year-old Londoner Hannah Lebor is also ranked number one in Under 17s and number two in Under 20s.

And she has consolidated her position by picking up two gold and one silver medal at last week’s event at University of East London SportsDock (9-20 August).

She saw off competition from Waiyuk Lin from Canada to win gold in the Cadet Women’s Epee Individual event, ahead of 38 other fencers and was the youngest member of the Junior Women’s Team which also won gold.

The four-strong Team England also won silver in the Cadet Women’s Epee Team category in the final against Canada, making England the overall winner in the medal tables for the Cadets, ahead of Australia, Canada, India, Wales and New Zealand.

The Championships run parallel to the Commonwealth Games and Hannah’s wins follow earlier successes including taking bronze in April at the Birmingham Senior International Competition, competing against adults, and competing with Team GB in the Junior and Cadet World Fencing Championships in the UAE.

Hannah started fencing while her family were living in Hungary, where the sport is far more common than in the UK, continuing with the sport when she returned to England with her family three years ago.

“It was the 2012 Olympics which really inspired me,” she said. “I was only about six or seven at the time and I watched the fencing and just thought it was really cool. I liked that it was a physical sport and also a mental one at the same time.”

Hannah trains three or four days a week at Knightsbridge Fencing Club as well as having one to one and strengthening and conditioning sessions, which all have to be balanced with her education at Yavneh College, a state school in Hertfordshire.

Currently studying Politics, Economics and Philosophy for A-level, her aim is to read Philosophy and Theology at university – and also to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“Obviously that would mean the world to me,” she said. “and I’m already training for them.

“The qualification season starts in the summer of 2023 – which is at the same time as my A-levels, so it should be quite a year.”