London 2012: Wheelchair fencers on target for ParalympicsGB

May 11, 2012

Wheelchair fencers in front of London's Tower Bridge

The British Paralympic Association has today named seven fencers who will compete for ParalympicsGB at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Six of the seven fencers selected will be making their Paralympic debuts later this year. Gemma Collis (Aylesbury), Gabby Down (Milton Keynes) and Justine Moore (Blackpool) will make up the young female Epee Team with an average age of just 18-years-old.

Down, who will be 14 at the end of May, is likely to be one of the youngest British athletes to compete at the 2012 Paralympic Games.

Today’s announcement is a great development for wheelchair fencing, a sport which has developed hugely in recent years. Just one fencer represented ParalympicsGB in Beijing but since then the sport has focussed on recruiting top fencing talent to the squad and membership of the British Disabled Fencing Association has tripled in the past two years.

Craig Hunter, Chef de Mission for ParalympicsGB, expressed his delight at the announcement, saying: “To have seven fencers selected to represent ParalympicsGB in London is a great achievement and the sport should be congratulated for all the hard work that has gone into getting such a massive increase from the one athlete we had in Beijing.

“It is a testament to the dedication of the athletes involved, the work done by British Disabled Fencing Association and the BPA’s talent development programmes, that we are in a position to select so many more world-class athletes from this sport this time around.”

Full list of ParalympicsGB fencers:
Gemma Collis
Gabby Down
Justine Moore
Tom Hall-Butcher
David Heaton
Craig McCann
Simon Wilson

Jessica Whittington, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine

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London 2012: Wheelchair fencers on target for ParalympicsGB

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