WEST FIFE fencer Mark Alvarez-Peres secured a remarkable bronze medal at his very first international tournament recently.

Mark, who is also the current under-13 British sabre champion, won the bronze medal and trophy when he competed in the under-13 boys' sabre event as part of the Scotland squad at the Challenge Wratislavia competition in Poland.

The competition is one of the biggest youth fencing events in the world and attracted 2190 fencers from 26 countries worldwide, including some of the top fencing nations: Russia, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and the USA.

In the initial poule round Mark won five of his six fights, which resulted in him being seeded 11th in the field of 100 fencers. A series of direct elimination rounds followed, in which Mark beat one Polish and three Russian fencers, including the number six seed, earning him a place in the semi-final.

In a very close-fought bout against the Russian number seven seed, Mark narrowly missed out on a place in the final by only one point after losing 12-11.

Along with Mark, five other West Fife fencers and their coach, Lorraine Rose, travelled with the Scotland squad. This was the first international event for all the fencers who all placed well in their events.

In the under-13 boys' foil, Duncan Morrison won three of his five poule fights and made it through two of the direct elimination rounds before losing out to the number three seed and ending up placed 52nd out of 180.

Two of the girls, Katrina Dungay and Chloe Fielding, qualified to compete in both foil and epee under-15 events, where both girls enjoyed some wins in the poule stages.

In the under-15 boys' epee, Chris Carr won four of his five poule fights to earn an initial 39th ranking, he then made it through two of the direct elimination rounds, eventually finishing 46th out of 213 competitors.

Sarah Barrett competed in the under-15 girls' foil, winning five of her six poule fights to give her an initial ranking of 24. She then made it through two rounds of direct elimination to get into the last 16 before losing out to the Polish eighth seed and finishing a very impressive 15th out of 129.

The trip, sponsored by Scottish Fencing, had been a fantastic learning experience for the fencers and their results show that the Dunfermline youngsters can compete and enjoy success against some of the best in the world.