I am very disappointed to announce that following three years as Head Coach of the Senior Men’s Foil programme, Andrey has decided to leave this position within British Fencing.  Having completed all the post Olympic reviews and having looked ahead to Tokyo where there is no men’s foil team event, Andrey has decided that now is a good time for him to leave.

During his time as Head Coach, Andrey was responsible for putting together one of the strongest men’s foil teams we have seen in British Fencing and their qualification for the Olympic Games in Rio was testament to his hard work.  Andrey oversaw the first European Games Team Gold Medal in Baku 2015 as well as a team Bronze medal at the European Championships in June 2016.  These medals, go alongside the two individual podium finishes for James and Richard at the World Cup in Bonn and the Grand Prix in Havana earlier this year.

Whilst we are all really disappointed that he has decided to leave this position, we appreciate his decision and we would all like to thank him for his hard work, enthusiasm and commitment to British Fencing over the last three years.  I would particularly like to thank him for his support to me as Performance Director.  I am confident that without Andrey we would not have made the progress we have made over the last three years and would not have had the success we have.  We now begin the search for his successor to ensure that we can continue to build on the progress made, but in the meantime Andrey will continue to work with the senior Olympic athletes in providing coaching support at competition.

As a result of Andrey’s decision and whilst we seek a replacement, Pierre Guichot Head Coach for Men’s Sabre, will take over as Head Coach for the World Class Programmes and responsibility for the senior men’s foil squad to ensure the momentum created from the Games is not lost.  Pierre will be supported at the junior level by the current WCP coaches, Cyril Tahon in Men’s Sabre and Maciej Wojtkowiak in Men’s Foil.

Alex Newton
Performance Director
October 2016