TWO young fencers are celebrating after putting in a strong showing at the Fencing World Championships, which were held in Poland.

Will Garrity, aged 17, from Chipping Campden, and Peter Kirby, 16, from North Littleton, were part of the British men's sabre under 20 team which fenced at the championships. They were joined by Ton Benney, 20, from Glastonbury and Dan Morgan-Blake from Croydon.

The Britons were seeded 10th and drawn against the seventh seed Russians in the last 16. The two older boys started the match getting to 6-10. Youngest team member, Dan then scored two.

The third man's job is to keep the team in touch against the two higher fencers and chase their third to get at least four hits.

Will and Tom fought back, and Will was definitely the stronger fencer. This match was following his 12th place in the individual event on Friday, one of the best British results this year.

This outstanding achievement was the result of a dedicated year's hard training.

Peter went on in the next slot and took thee hits off the top Russian, followed by another three off the last one. One cameo was Peter doing a flick stop hit to the Russian's wrist as he attacked, tripped fell over and did a backwards somersault. And he won the hit. The British team was place 10th in the 2001 World Youth Team Championships.

Peter Kirby said: "I'm really pleased with my performance at this world championships."

Peter will fence for the West Midlands sabre team as their top ranked player this weekend in the Winton Cup and will lead the Warwickshire County side out at the end of May the third time he has won his full county senior colours.

The women's sabre team was lead by Louise Bond-Williams, 18, from Ebrington. The women did well against a Ukranian team to win a place in the quarter finals.

But their last eight opponents were a strong French team and the women went out after failing to break the French team's tactical style of fencing.