Nineteen-year-old Laura Sheffield was the sole British fencer to journey to South America for the Junior Women’s Epee World Cup at the weekend. A mature and disciplined performance took her to a silver medal in a final that could have gone either way.
Sheffield came through the poule stage as second seed amongst a field of 20, dropping just one fight. A mark of her continued development, she went on to beat Suvonova (UZB) 15-1 and Brilla Araya (CRC) 15-4 to make the semi-finals.
Vizeu (BRA) proved a much stronger opponent in the top four but Sheffield handled the pressure on the podium piste to take a 15-13 victory. She faced number one seed Viveros (BRA) in the final and despite an impressive showing, just lost 15-14.
Laura is one of the young athletes on the British Fencing Athlete Development Programme, funded by Sport England: https://www.sportengland.org/
More information about ADP camps, programmes and updates can be found here: https://www.britishfencing.com/gbr-fencing/gbr-development-programmes/gbr-athlete-development-programme/.
Laura is also one of the British Fencing young athletes funded by SportsAid, receiving assistance to further improve and benefit from opportunities available in competition and training. Read more about how SportsAid has helped Laura by clicking here.
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