TEENAGER Tabitha De N'Yeurt has fought her way into England and GB selection for cadet U17s women's foil selection.

The Year 11 Castle student trains four times a week, competes most weekends and still finds time to study for her forthcoming GCSE exams this summer.

This commitment is paying off and the 15-year-old recently travelled to Budapest, Hungary and Tauberbischofsheim, Germany with the U17 Great Britain Foil squad where she competed against the best fencers on the European and international circuit.

While she was one of the youngest members of the squad she fenced well enough to avoid the 20% cut of fencers to progress to the direct elimination stages at both events. Her progress has been spotted by England Fencing and she has been asked to represent England in Paris, France at the beginning of February, which will add a third England cap to her collection.

Closer to home she competed in the Aldershot Senior Open run by the Army Fencing Union. She battled through the group stage to be ranked 5th having dropped one fight 4-5 winning the others 5-0, 5-1,5-2,5-2.

The next two fights were to 15 and she won both comfortably 15-3 and 15-6.

This set up a semi-final bout against GB Junior (U20) foilist Sophie Peake. The older fencer's experience and physical presence paid off and Tabby lost 15-8 in a tense fight. Tabby's final placing was 3rd and she was best Cadet, the winner was No. 6 Senior GB fencer Chiarra McDermott.

Tabby speaking about her performance said: " I was really pleased with the way I controlled each fight, particularly in the direct elimination rounds to 15. I recognized that I was tiring just before the semi-final bout and will continue to work on my strength and conditioning for the rest of the season.

"This is my first proper season in cadets and I have already met and exceeded the targets set with my coach, I am proud that the hard work of my coach and I has meant I was able to represent Great Britain, twice this year and get a third call up for England."

The season started badly for Tabitha with a severe shoulder injury threatening to end the season before it started, Tabby had to train smartly and build the muscle around her shoulder as well as adapt a completely different fencing style with less lateral rotation in her direct and compound attacks. Her perseverance and resilience has paid off midway though the season she is ranked 18th in Great Britain at U17 level moving up from 36th at the start of the season with three domestic events left. In the senior rankings she is currently 43rd and in the south west, she is currently ranked second at senior level.

In the coming months she will be defending her South West U16 champion title and Gloucestershire U16 champion title.

Tabitha continues to be supported by Active Leisure centre, Thornbury where she trains and Cadman Wealth, the latter who have sponsored Tabitha £100 towards the costs of competitions.

Tabitha continues to seek local business support for equipment and training costs and would ask any local companies interested to contact sarah.macisaac@cset.co.uk