Welsh Fencing is pleased to announce the creation of the Welsh Youth League. Francesca Whalley has agreed to co-ordinate the program and Russell Swords have volunteered to host/run the South Wales regional event at the Cardiff Academy of Fencing.
This is designed to create a ranking system similar to that used by England Fencing to encourage young fencers to compete more regularly and provide a more accurate assessment of their level/progress in pre-cadet age groups. The system will use existing events and new regional competitions to create a ranking for Welsh U15 fencers in all three weapons. By applying a NIF (or 'relative difficulty') to an event, we are able to translate positions into points, which means that we can create a league independent of age-groupings.
Ranking events will include:
1. Welsh Youth Championships
2. British Youth Championships
3. Cadet BRC events
4. Welsh BYC Qualifiers
5. LPJS events
6. Elite Epee
7. Sabre U14 events
8. South Wales Regional (new event)
9. North Wales Regional (new event)
Points from these events will be collated and, at the end of each season, (December) prizes/medals awarded to the top ranked fencers.
The rankings will also be a useful tool for selection of younger team members for the Cadet Winton and School Games. This could be referred to after the cadet rankings should there be fewer than 4 Welsh fencers on the cadet circuit.
All of Wales will be invited to both regional events (as we are of course one region). Categories will be U11, U13 and U15 to give those who only fence within Wales more of a mix of opponents rather than being in line with the Welsh Youth events and having the same fencers in each category.
For full details, see the new section of the website. Select 'Welsh Youth League' from the 'Competitions' menu option.