Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

UK’s most northernly fencing competition brings in competitors from around the world

Fencers taking part in the Highland Open.
Fencers taking part in the Highland Open.

Elgin played host to a prestigous fencing competition this weekend, as competitors from around the world flocked to the town.

The Highland Open is the UK’s most northernly fencing tournament and was held at the newly-built Elgin High School.

People travelled from as far as Portland and New York for the two-day event to compete in the men’s and women’s foil, epee and sabre categories.

This is the first time the competition has been held at the new Elgin High School and Robin Paterson, head coach at the Elgin Duellist Fencing Club, was impressed.

He said: “The fencers who competed were very complimentary about the quality of the school and saw it as a fantastic venue.

“This is the third year we have ran this competition in the high school and we look forward to coming here again next year.”

One of the more distinguishing features of the Highland Open is the fact that young, local talent are given the chance to compete against some of the big names in the sport.

Casper Hawkins, 16, from Forres and Oran McKenna, 17, from Hopeman got to rub shoulders with some of the members of the Scottish national fencing team.

Mr Paterson believes that the Highland Open is unique, as it offers a friendlier atmosphere than the rest of the British competitions.

He said: “I would argue that although their are bigger events in the UK, the Highland Open stands out because of the friendliness of the competition.

“This doesn’t impact on the calibre of fencers as we still attract Scottish internationals and some from around Europe and America.

“The event was incredibly successful this year and I’m delighted about how well it went.”

Robert Blackburn, originally from New Zealand was the big winner on Saturday when he clinched the mens epee title. Elgin’s Callum Sutherland performed well to secure third place in that event.