International Fencing in Birmingham

Deputy Lord Mayor's Blog 38
I recently had the opportunity to show civic support for the Birmingham International Fencing Tournament held at the Munro Sports Centre at The University of Birmingham. I was delighted to do this as it is one of the top 5 open competitions in the country and because Birmingham is proud to be the chosen city for this fine competition and premier competitions in many sports. Birmingham has a very strong sporting tradition and world class venues such as the National Indoor Arena. In fact the city has staged more World and European sporting events than any other city in the country. And we are very proud of our international reputation for our sports events programme.

I was at the fencing tournament for some of the finals with the competitors using foil and sabre (separately!) at lightning speed. And we have some excellent fencers here in Birmingham. In particular I would like to mention Rhys Melia, with whom I am pictured here, who was runner up in the foil final and who has done much to bring this excellent sport to wider communities and I would like to see him have the opportunity to do more and see the sport available in more schools. Fencing is highly skilful of course and discipline and respect are also much to the fore and highly desirable in today’s world. There is a very friendly atmosphere and family traditions in the sport too. Recommended!