14-year-old girl becomes highest ever placing Channel Island fencer

Monday 22 August 2022

A Jersey-born teen has become the highest ever placing Channel Island fencer in the history of the competition.

Poppy-Anne Elcock (14) has recently returned from the Commonwealth Fencing Championships after placing 10th overall in the Cadet category, overtaking the 12th place achieved by the Team Manager Richard Bernstein in 2014.

Poppy-Anne is the youngest member of Jersey team of 12 athletes who travelled to the Commonwealth Fencing Federation Championships 2022 in London last week.

Although fencing is not currently in the main body of the Commonwealth Games, the Commonwealth Championships of the sport always take places in the same year.

Pictured: Poppy-Anne Elcock spoke to Express in 2019 about her Olympic aspirations.

Due to covid, the Junior Championship was cancelled in 2020 and England Fencing agreed to take them on alongside the Senior, Veterans and Parafencing that was already planned for August 2022. 

This year’s team was the largest and most diverse team Jersey has ever taken to the event, with fencers ranging from age 14 to age 62 representing the island.

Although Poppy-Anne is officially a Cadet (under 17 years) fencer, she also entered the female Junior (under 20 years) and Senior (aged 20 to 40 years) events on behalf of Jersey.

As well as her 10^th place in the Cadet event, Poppy-Anne also finished 11^th in the Junior event and 18^th in the Senior event, where she battled against fencers much older than her.

Pictured: Poppy-Anne also won first place in two of the Challenge Team events.

She also took part in some of the Challenge Team events, where fencers from smaller nations or those with extra fencers not picked for the main event were able to join together and make mixed teams.

Poppy-Anne placed first in both of her Challenge Team competitions, fencing alongside a Scottish and a Welsh athlete in the Senior team competition and a Canadian and a South African in the Junior event.

Micheal Hill from Jersey also placed first in the men’s Senior Foil Challenge Team alongside teammates from Malaysia and Northern Ireland, while Natasha Lee gained second place in Senior Women’s Epee Challenge Teams alongside Guernsey and New Zealand.

Pictured: The Challenge Team events teamed up Jersey fencers with athletes from other small nations, including Guernsey.

Martha Bernstein, Co-President of Jersey Fencing, said: “In the main competitions, we are exceedingly pleased with the performance of all the competitors.

“We are indebted to Ocorian for being the major sponsors for the Fencing Team as well as to Ravenscroft who also helped to bring the costs down for the team.

“We are now having a well-earned break, but we will be back fencing at our home in the Sports Hall at Les Quennevais School in early September.”

People who would like to get involved with fencing are invited to email Martha at: mjb@marthabernstein.co.uk.