Joe Littler - press

<%@LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> Joe Littler - press

Joe on Look North TV

Press release: 3 April 2008

Joe was selected to go to Poland to represent England along with several other Yorkshire fencers. He flew to Poland on Thursday, fenced on Friday and flew home on Saturday. He fenced in the International Childrens’ Fencing tournament called Challenge Wratislavia, in Wroclaw, Poland. He fenced well against boys who are often state sponsored, reaching a creditable 39th place.

On Sunday he went straight to the British squad training weekend. The squad are working towards the World cadet championships 2009 and he has come home determined to be in the top 4. To do this he has to dedicate even more time to his training, he already fences 3 nights a week, but he will now add swimming and circuit training to his training plan.

He will be the right age-group for the Youth Olympic games 2010 which is to be held in Singapore, we don’t know yet how the team for this will be selected, but Joe is hopeful of a place.

He is currently 1st in the Leon Paul Junior Series after 2 events and needs 2 more good results to secure this top position in the national competition.

Anyone who would like to offer support to this young fencer can contact us via his website www.fencing.joelittler.co.uk

He was recently featured on Look North and this clip now features on the Olympics page of the BBC website http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/london_2012/default.stm

Other Yorkshire fencers were Jamie Albert, James Loryman, Jordan Chang, Patrick Jennings and Molly Jowsey (Caitlin Chang was selected but didn’t attend). 5 out of the 12 boys selected were from Yorks and 2 out of the 12 girls, a good proportion from one county.

Sheffield Telegraph, 11 January 2008

Littler foiled in bid for county epee title

(click image to enlarge)

Sheffield Telegraph, 14 December 2007 (click to enlarge)

Article in Sheffield Telegraph, 14 December 2007: No point sitting on the fence anymore, that hair's got to go, Joe

The following article appreared in the Sheffield Telegraph on 13 July 2007:

BUCCANEERING Sheffield fencer Joe Littler has become the English under 15 Épée champion... by the narrowest of margins.

The 13 year old King Edwards secondary school pupil and member of Sheffield Buccaneers Fencing Club fenced boys from all over the country winning a nail-biting final against David Stewart-Watson of Plymouth.

Joe won six out of seven fights in the first round, to place him second overall at that stage to Stewart-Watson from Plymouth, who won all his fights in the first round.

Joe knocked out James Ross 15-10 in the direct elimination stage, then faced another Yorkshire fencer, Jamie Albert of Harrogate in the semi-final.

Joe got revenge for a narrow defeat in his last bout [in the first round] against Jamie as he won 15-13 with a splendid final hit.

The final was closely fought with both fencers very evenly matched, and at the end of time the score was 12 all.

In this circumstance, fencers fight for an extra minute with any hit deciding the bout. Both fencers were poised to take the title and scored a double hit. David attacked very aggressively at Joe, who did a disengage riposte and scored the winning point, 13-12 on extra time.

Joe started fencing four years ago and now fences at Sheffield Buccaneers Fencing Club with coach Adam Blight.

Joe said "I've been training hard three or four times a week for several months now. It was a tough day's fencing and I'm really pleased that my hard work has paid off".

Joe is one of the group of young fencers taking advantage of the junior pathway funded money from the sports lottery fund.

He is the fourth fencer from Sheffield Buccaneers Fencing Club to have won a National Championship in recent years.

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