British Fencing is delighted to announce it has been requested to apply for up to 10 Backing the Best awards of up to £5000 for GBR Junior fencers who are resident in England and have a total household income of less than £50k per annum.

Backing The Best, managed by SportsAid for Sport England, aims to support athletes who would face difficulties progressing through their sport’s talent development system without critical financial help. Backed by £5.5 million of National Lottery funding over a four-year period, Backing The Best presents annual awards of £5,000 per athlete to help with essential costs such as travel, accommodation, kit, nutrition and medical bills, as well as extra support from coaches.

Athletes that wish to be put forward for an award must contact [email protected] by 12 noon on 19th November, with a copy of their up to date Athlete Profile.

If more than 10 athletes apply for awards they will be selected based on the following criteria:

• Performance Trajectory (rankings and recent international results)
• Past and future commitment to Athlete Development Programme (including participation in GBR National Camps)
• Quality of Training and Competition Programme

Athletes will then be contacted by BF with a link to complete an online application by the 1st December.

Please note that BF are not responsible for means testing – this will be undertaken by SportsAid. As part of this process SportsAid will be in direct contact with the athlete and their family.

All recipients of Backing the Best awards are expected to participate in GBR National Camps.