BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIPS FAQS

Why are check in times for each event not yet announced?

Check in times for the BYCs will be published after all the Regional Qualifying Events (RQEs) have taken place in March.

Qualification for the BYCs is partly based on the numbers of fencers competing in the RQEs. This allows flexibility for the inevitable variation between weapons, age groups and regional entries over the years.

When making a timetable for a multi-event like the BYCs which has 8 separate weapons per day, the British Fencing team need to know the maximum number of entries per weapon in order to produce an accurate timetable. The addition of just a few fencers to a single weapon can impact the number of pistes required and in turn, has a knock-on effect to piste allocation and timings for other weapons and could add hours to the expected finishing time.

Why do the BYCs take place on the May Bank Holiday Weekend?

The British Youth Championships (BYCs) is the largest youth participation fencing event in the UK, with over 1,000 entrants each year. Given the scale of the competition, the event has a limited number of possible dates. The first May Bank Holiday has traditionally been chosen, for over 10 years, as the weekend for the championships primarily due to venue availability but also alignment with international calendars.

The BYCs require a minimum of 38 pistes to run smoothly, along with additional floor space for spectators and officials. Space requirements significantly limit the venues capable of hosting such a large-scale event located in a reasonably accessible part of the UK.

If we are to maximise the opportunities for children to fence as well as keeping entry costs as low as we can,  it is not possible to hold all the weapon competitions in one day (in some cases we simply don’t have enough referees). Nor is it possible (for example) to hold all weapons in one age group in one day and as some fencers qualify in more than one weapon we try to adapt the schedule accordingly.

While British Fencing is mindful that the competition coincides with a busy period in the school calendar, including exams and other commitments the event day schedule is published by January each year. This gives participants 4-5 months to plan and prepare for the competition.

Our policy is (like many other sporting bodies) that we are not going to stop running sports events just because of exams. We do recognise that for some fencers the chase for ranking points creates stress and to encourage sensible decision making around that we will sometimes adjust the number of ranking points available for events which clash with some exams (eg GCSEs and A Levels). The BYCs is not a registered ranking event for U17 or U20 BF rankings.