Includes the President and International Relations Report. This article forms part of a series of reports which accompanies the 2024-25 BF Annual Report.
In this first year following my appointment in October 2024, I look forward to continuing the work led by Hilary, extending relationships across the international fencing community and further strengthening the positive contribution that British Fencing can make to the future of our sport globally. I’d like to thank outgoing president Hilary Philbin for all her support over the years and the BF Board for placing their trust in me.” I would also like to thank Hilary for such a smooth handover – allowing me to continue to strengthen British Fencing’s IR strategy.
Since October 2024 – it has been a busy fencing season for me as president. I have continued to improve relationships with a number of international fencing federations globally. In March this year, I was appointed President of the Equality and Diversity Commission for the European Fencing Confederation – where we are making strides to improve equality and diversity in fencing across Europe. Earlier this year I was also appointed as a member of the FIE Fair Play Council.
In my role I am also looking forward to being more involved in wheelchair fencing where we plan to develop a stronger international relations strategy and support our amazing athletes and support staff.
As Chair of British Fencing’s International Relations (IR) committee, I continue to work closely with UK Sport’s IR representatives regarding our overall IR strategy and our long-term succession planning.
On the competition circuit I note with pleasure our improving international results at cadet and junior level . Notable performances where I had the pleasure attend were as follows:
Gold medals for men’s Junior Foil and Gold Medal for Junior Men’s Epee in the team events as well as Bronze medals for Junior Women’s Foil at the 2025 Cadet and Junior European Championships in Antalya in March. Congratulations to the fencers and coaches for their hard work throughout the season.
Congratulations to Paralympic medal winners in Paris, Dimitri Coutya, Piers Gilliver and Oliver Lam-Watson. Well done to the athletes and their support team. I look forward to supporting our athletes through another Paralympic cycle.
On the refereeing front it is good to see our growing number of qualified international referees and I was particularly pleased to see Sam McLellan joining Adrian Speakman on the FIE Master List.
The past year was particularly significant for the 4-yearly elective congresses held by the International Fencing Federation (FIE) and the European Fencing Confederation (EFC), and I would like to congratulate Hilary Philbin on being re-elected to the EFC Executive Committee. I was also pleased to see the number of successful GBR candidates for FIE, EFC and World Para Fencing posts on the various Commissions and Councils, and a full list is included in the attached IR report.
Pat Aiyenuro, President
The impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict has now dominated international fencing relations for 3 seasons. The European Fencing Confederation (EFC) is increasingly out of sync with decisions taken by the Executive Committee of the International Fencing Federation (FIE), as the FIE increasingly moves away from the published policies of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This raises an obvious concern re whether the decreasing alignment between FIE and IOC policies will ultimately have a negative effect on fencing’s continuing inclusion in the Olympic programme. Let us hope not.
At the FIE Congress there was little change, with Alisher Uzmanov (RUS) being re-elected as President and then immediately standing down. This resulted – as before – in the General Secretary, Manolis Katsiadakis (GRE), becoming the Interim President.
At the EFC Congress Giorgio Scarso (ITA) retired as President, and there was a closely-fought contest resulting in the election of Pascal Tesch (LUX). I would like to offer our congratulations to Pascal, and our thanks to Giorgio for his strong leadership in the previous years. Giorgio guided Europe through troubled waters, and established a number of successful initiatives such as the Solidarity Programme – designed to form closer relationships between the stronger fencing nations and the smaller or developing nations.
At home International Relations continue to be managed by the trio of Pat Aiyenuro as President, Georgina Usher as CEO and myself as International Relations Director (having ‘swapped’ roles with Pat after Pat’s recent appointment as President). This trio represents British Fencing at the annual FIE and EFC international congresses and at their major championships.
Following the 2024 elections Great Britain continues to have strong representation. I congratulate all successful candidates (and commiserate with those who were unsuccessful on this occasion).
FIE
• Peter Jacobs – Legal Commission
• Janet Huggins – SEMI Commission
• Pat Aiyenuro – Fair Play Council
• Georgina Usher – Women in Fencing Council
EFC
• Hilary Philbin – Executive Committee (ComEx)
• Pat Aiyenuro – Equity & Diversity Commission
• Tom Cadman – Legal Commission
• Georgina Usher – Safeguarding Commission
• Jon Willis – Competition Commission
• Carl Morris – Veterans Council)
World Para Fencing
• Peter Huggins – Chair of SEMI Commission
• Gemma Collis – Chair of the Athletes’ Council
As always, thanks are due to all our IR representatives who are volunteers making their much-appreciated contributions to the world of fencing and its future.
Hilary Philbin, International Relations Director
Click here for the full 2024-25 Annual Report.
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