Sport
LeBor ready for Budapest
Hannah LeBor, 14,will be the youngest competitor in the Great Britain team at an international fencing tournament gets under way in Budapest.
October 7, 2019 08:45
Hannah LeBor, 14,will be the youngest competitor in the Great Britain team at an international fencing tournament gets under way in Budapest.
October 7, 2019 08:45LeBor, 14, will compete in the individual épée in the Cadet tournament for under-17 fencers from around the world, which will also be an emotional return to her mother’s home country.
LeBor lives in Edgware with journalist dad Adam, a foreign correspondent, author of thriller novels and many acclaimed non-fiction books, mum Katalin and brother Daniel, 15.
A member of the Leon Paul fencing club in west Hendon, where she trains four times a week, LeBor was called up by the British team to join the squad of 20 girls for the tournament after winning ranking points in domestic competitions.
She competed in the National Cadet championships at the University of East London in Docklands last month, finishing a creditable ninth out of 52 competitors and she is now ranked ninth in the country in U17 fencing.
“I am really looking forward to this tournament in Budapest because my mum is Hungarian and we lived there before returning to England earlier this year,” said Lebor.
“I’ve fenced in Hungary from the age of seven after seeing it once on television during an Olympics and decided I loved the sport and wanted to do it. It is a very big sport in the country and I know the venue where the tournament will be very well. We will also get a chance to see my grandparents, who will be there to cheer me on.”
LeBor said: “Most people start fencing with foil, but I really enjoy épée because I feel it gives me more variety to score points.”
Hannah and brother Daniel were batmitzvahed and barmitvahed at the beautiful Frankel synagogue on the Buda side of the Danube, where their parents married in 2002.
The children attended the British International school in Budapest, and while there last year, Hannah travelled to England, where she won the bronze medal, taking joint third place in the national British Youth fencing championships in Sheffield for under-14s épée , the only 12-year-old in the top eight.