{"id":10311,"date":"2016-03-15T16:53:48","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T16:53:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/?p=10311"},"modified":"2016-03-15T16:53:48","modified_gmt":"2016-03-15T16:53:48","slug":"cardiff-student-wins-british-fencing-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/15\/cardiff-student-wins-british-fencing-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardiff student wins British fencing championship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_10314\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10314\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/12842423_10154171376281833_225485842_o.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10314\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10314\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/12842423_10154171376281833_225485842_o-1024x617.jpg\" alt=\"Amy Radford in action at the U23 British Championships\" width=\"1024\" height=\"617\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10314\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10314\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/12842423_10154171376281833_225485842_o-1024x617.jpg\" alt=\"Amy Radford in action at the U23 British Championships\" width=\"1024\" height=\"617\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> Amy Radford in action at the U23 British Championships<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nCARDIFF University student Amy Radford has qualified for the European Fencing Championships after winning the British Under 23 Ep\u00e9e title last weekend.<br \/>\nShe had two previous national titles at both U17 and U20 level, but came third last year in U23. Her recent success meant that she went into Saturday\u2019s competition as the definite favourite.<br \/>\n\u201cIt meant a lot to win this new title and add it to my collection. The only British title I\u2019m yet to win is the Senior British Championships. After coming second last year and third the year before, I have some extra motivation to go after it this April.\u201d<br \/>\nAfter huge success in younger age brackets, the U23 level at which Amy is now competing is relatively new to the fencing circuit.<br \/>\n\u201cThe aim is to try to bridge the gap and prevent such a high drop out rate between junior and senior fencers, which I think is a great idea. I have competed for GB at senior international level a number of times, but have struggled to make a breakthrough. Hopefully this intermediary level will help me to further develop as a fencer.\u201d<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10315\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10315\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Screen-Shot-2016-03-15-at-13.11.25.png\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10315\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-10315 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Screen-Shot-2016-03-15-at-13.11.25-300x243.png\" alt=\"Amy Radford on the podium at the U23 Championships\" width=\"300\" height=\"243\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10315\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10315 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Screen-Shot-2016-03-15-at-13.11.25-300x243.png\" alt=\"Amy Radford on the podium at the U23 Championships\" width=\"300\" height=\"243\" \/><\/noscript><\/a> Amy Radford on the podium at the U23 Championships<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nAmy took up fencing over 10 years ago. She got into it by chance after joining in a class with her cousin.<br \/>\n\u201cI remember having absolutely no idea what fencing was when I went along to my first session, but I soon got hooked. I\u2019ve always been naturally sporty and picked it up quickly. I was quite successful at a young age, and the more I won the more I enjoyed it.\u201d<br \/>\nBalancing university work with her fencing career provides its own set of challenges for Amy.<br \/>\n\u201cGiven that I am in final year now and have some important exams coming up. I have tried to scale back my training and competition schedule, but oddly I\u2019m having one of my most successful seasons in recent years.<br \/>\n\u201cI put that down to the fact that I have taken all the pressure off myself. Now that I\u2019m not worrying so much about my results or chasing ranking points, I\u2019ve found that I\u2019ve gone back to really enjoying the sport, which is bringing out the best in me.\u201d<br \/>\nEp\u00e9e is one of the three fencing disciplines. The other two are called foil and sabre. Each involves a different weapon and slightly different rules.<br \/>\n\u201cEp\u00e9e is the heaviest weapon and the whole body is the target. There are no rules of priority, which can make sabre and foil quite confusing. You just have to hit your opponent before they hit you to score a point. Matches are first to 15, and the tournaments are typically knockouts.\u201d<br \/>\nDespite her success at national level, Amy has faced struggles finding funding as fencing is a niche sport.<br \/>\n\u201cUnfortunately, fencing has a very limited funding stream and what little we have is ring-fenced for a select group of athletes.<br \/>\n\u201cBecause I chose to come to a Welsh university, despite being an English athlete, I was dropped from a funding programme in 2012. Despite being British Junior number one and a world and European finalist in 2013 and 2014, I was not accepted onto British Fencing\u2019s \u2018talent\u2019 programme and so received little support.<br \/>\n\u201cI fully accept that funding is a privilege and not a right, but that doesn\u2019t make things any easier.\u201d<br \/>\nAmy is keen to pursue fencing full time and to compete more frequently on an international level. However, the lack of funding makes this a challenge, as travel costs are high.<br \/>\n\u201cThis year I have been selected to represent Great Britain at senior world cups in Brazil, China, Qatar, Italy and Hungary. Unfortunately, I have had to turn all of these down as I just can\u2019t afford it \u2013 even tournaments in Europe cost around \u00a3300 for a weekend!\u201d<br \/>\nFor the moment, this limits how much time Amy can hope to spend on fencing after graduation. Her hopes rest on the British team\u2019s success at the Olympics this summer, as it would improve the funding stream.<br \/>\n\u201cIn the future I would absolutely love to have the opportunity to train and compete full time to see how far I can progress.<br \/>\n\u201cIf fencing can win a medal in Rio then we will be in a much better financial position and this could become a reality. If not, the only way I could afford to do this would be to work and save up enough money to be able to go and train abroad for a year. It\u2019s something that I wouldn\u2019t rule out.\u201d<br \/>\nThe Under 23 European Championships will be held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in May. It will be Amy\u2019s first time competing in this particular tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CARDIFF University student Amy Radford has qualified for the European Fencing Championships after winning the British Under 23 Ep\u00e9e title last weekend. She had two previous national titles at both U17 and U20 level, but came third last year in U23. Her recent success meant that she went into Saturday\u2019s competition as the definite favourite. \u201cIt meant a lot to win this new title and add it to my collection. The only British title I\u2019m yet to win is the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1291,265,1969,378,74,339],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-10311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sport","tag-cardiff-2","tag-cardiff-university","tag-fencing","tag-olympics","tag-sport-2","tag-wales"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cardiff student wins British fencing championship - The Cardiffian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/15\/cardiff-student-wins-british-fencing-championship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cardiff student wins British fencing championship - The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CARDIFF University student Amy Radford has qualified for the European Fencing Championships after winning the British Under 23 Ep\u00e9e title last weekend. She had two previous national titles at both U17 and U20 level, but came third last year in U23. Her recent success meant that she went into Saturday\u2019s competition as the definite favourite. \u201cIt meant a lot to win this new title and add it to my collection. The only British title I\u2019m yet to win is the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/15\/cardiff-student-wins-british-fencing-championship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Cardiffian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-15T16:53:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/12842423_10154171376281833_225485842_o-1024x617.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cathyduncan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cathyduncan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cathyduncan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/15\/cardiff-student-wins-british-fencing-championship\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/15\/cardiff-student-wins-british-fencing-championship\/\",\"name\":\"Cardiff student wins British fencing championship - The Cardiffian\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/15\/cardiff-student-wins-british-fencing-championship\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/15\/cardiff-student-wins-british-fencing-championship\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/12842423_10154171376281833_225485842_o-1024x617.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-15T16:53:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/41c76b1e66d8cf6e57cba8550c3772b1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/15\/cardiff-student-wins-british-fencing-championship\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/15\/cardiff-student-wins-british-fencing-championship\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/15\/cardiff-student-wins-british-fencing-championship\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/12842423_10154171376281833_225485842_o-1024x617.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/cardiffian.jomec.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/12842423_10154171376281833_225485842_o-1024x617.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/2016\/03\/15\/cardiff-student-wins-british-fencing-championship\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Cardiff student wins British fencing championship\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/\",\"name\":\"The Cardiffian\",\"description\":\"Just another JOMEC Sites Network site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/41c76b1e66d8cf6e57cba8550c3772b1\",\"name\":\"cathyduncan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cardiffjournalism.co.uk\/thecardiffian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/d4d0895f6e1f7ccb86d04236a870a18b\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cd1b1b63598c25c15d3e0d390366ec2ba1c99865b1a23c34339be8c5c396a81?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cd1b1b63598c25c15d3e0d390366ec2ba1c99865b1a23c34339be8c5c396a81?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cathyduncan\"},\"description\":\"Lecturer, Cardiff University News Journalism MA. 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