University of Nottingham Sport scholar Rachael Lever recently became the first woman from the University of Nottingham Fencing Club to be crowned individual champion in BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport) competition. Rachael travelled to Sheffield for the biggest individual fencing event of the BUCS calendar with fellow representatives from University of Nottingham Fencing Club.
The 2023 BUCS Fencing Championships were spread across three days from the 17th to the 19th February, held at Ponds Forge ISC in Sheffield. The competition was split across the days with the disciplines of Epee, Sabre and Foil each taking place on one day each.
After a very respectable seventh place finish in the Women’s Foil event on the Saturday, Lever took confidence into the final day for the Epee competition. After a solid poule in which she won four matches, Rachael entered the knockout rounds as the 18th seed. A convincing 15-6 victory over Edinburgh’s Marie Gerardin provided progression into the round of 32, where Alexanda Moor of Cambridge would be waiting.
Despite being a more challenging round for Nottingham’s Lever, a 15-10 win lifted her into the last 16 where another Cambridge fencer would be looking to stop her charge through the competition. This time though it would be Eva Van Der Heijden, who had qualified as the 2nd seeded fencer from the poules overall. However, this did not faze Rachael who registered another comfortable win (15-8), before continuing to raise her performance levels in the quarter-finals with a stunning 15-6 over Lancaster’s Anastasiia Lytvyniuk that left Lever one match from the final.
As expected, semi-final opponent Alexandra Powell from Manchester Met provided a testing opponent with Lever having to dig deep, however after 27 tightly contested points it would Lever who would strike the winning point to secure a place in the final and the chance at an historic gold.
The final would showcase Nottinghamshire fencing with a University of Nottingham versus Nottingham Trent University final, as Lever would take on fourth seeded Ellie Jackson. In an epic final, Lever would gain an early lead and despite Jackson continuing to keep within a couple of points throughout, there would be a match point at 14-12. Our Nottingham fencer made no mistake and took the title at the first opportunity with a 15-12 win, sending Head of Fencing Paul Sibert into a celebratory jig before photographs with the champion and team mascot Darwin.
On winning the BUCS Individual gold and becoming national champion, Rachael told us; “I am delighted to be BUCS champion this year, especially as I fell short last year - it made the win even sweeter. I have been wanting this title ever since I came to the university. I am just so proud to have finally done it, and to be the first woman from the club to do so.“
Across the weekend of action, there were top ten finishes for Ed Scott Payne in the Men’s Epee (8th), Holly Thompson in the Women’s Foil (10th), and Ingrid-Anamaria Dorgan in the Women’s Epee (6th). You can find a full round-up of results here.
We send our congratulations to Rachael and the Fencing club on this fantastic success and for all of their efforts across the weekend where they represented University of Nottingham Sport brilliantly. You can keep up to date with the Fencing club on social media here.
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Posted on Monday 27th February 2023