Gold Medal leads to new challenges

Published on isbi School News dated Thursday 18th of September 2014

Douggie Ashby, a Year 10 student at St Benedict's School in Ealing, finished first in the Leon Paul Junior Series (LPJS) U15 boys foil event held at Newham Sportsdock on the weekend of 5/6 July. Douggie has regularly finished in the top eight in these series events but this was his first win on the circuit.

The LPJS is a series of events that occur throughout the year, across the country. The London events and particularly the Newham event are the toughest events in the U15 calendar. The best fencers in this age category attend the LPJS competitions in order to gain experience and qualification points for international competition. Douggie has already begun to compete at U17 and U20 national selection tournaments and his success in the LPJS event will further support that.

Douggie takes his fencing very seriously. Apart from training at St Benedict's during games sessions and evenings and fulfilling fixtures against other schools, he is a member of the Saxons Club and regularly attends the Leon Paul Centre in Hendon. 2013/14 was a successful year for Douggie and his gold medal in the LPJS at Newham was a great experience and a crowning feature of the year. He is now looking forward to new challenges in 2014/15 including more national qualification events.