Jacqueline Oien, 14-year-old pupil at St Swithun’s School, Winchester has become the National Under 16 Girls’ Epée champion at the British Youth Fencing Championships 2016 which took place at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield on 1 May.
The event consisted of a seeding round followed by a number of knockout rounds. Jacqueline, competing as one of the younger competitors in the under 16 category was seeded 17, after the initial rounds. She went on to win 15-5, 15-12 and 15-13 in the early three knockout rounds, followed by a win of 15-11 against a fencer from Wales in the quarter-finals and by 15-10 against a representative from the West Midlands in the semi-finals. The final was against a competitor from Millfield School in the South West region and Jacqueline clinched the title in a sudden death situation with a 15-14 victory. Jacqueline came 3rd in the same competition last year in the U14 category but this year beat last year’s champion in the second round of direct eliminations.
Weekly boarder at St Swithun’s, Jacqueline trains at school twice a week and was representing the London region at this event, where she trains once a week with her coach Alex Agrenich. Her coach at St Swithun’s is Allen Cooke and he was thrilled to be present to coach and witness Jacqueline’s achievement in Sheffield. Jacqueline said “It was an amazing but thrilling experience. All the hard work has now paid off and hopefully in the future I will continue to achieve results like this.”