Alan Jay, one of Britain’s most outstanding fencers of the past 60 years, was re-elected for a further four-year term to the Disciplinary Committee of fencing’s international governing body, the Federation Internationale D’Escrime (FIE).

Jay won both team and individual medals at epee in the Rome (1960) Olympics and was World Champion foilist in 1959. Amongst his other medals, he won six golds for two appearances in the Maccabiah Games.

American Sada Jacobson, who won two silver medals in Beijing, has stuck with her decision to retire from competitive fencing - at least for now. She has, says mother Tina, now completed her first term at Michigan University law school and hopes to marry in May. Younger sister Jackie though is on the fencing programme at Columbia and will compete on the national circuit in 2009.