Twins inspired by girls’ week
In a week that has celebrated Scottish women and girls in sport, Honor and Lucia Paul (13) are impressive examples of how far young women can take their chosen discipline when the right mix of talent, commitment and inspiration is there.
The twin sisters, who train three times a week at Salle Ossian Fencing Club, have been competing in the Youth Development Series in fencing sabre since they were only 10.
From their first performance at this level, they were selected to represent Scotland at the international tournament in Poland and since then have gone on to compete further at regional level, and at national level in the Scottish schools completion.
Honor commented: “We have just returned from competing in the Flemish Open in Ghent, Belgium where I won first girl in a mixed competition and eighth overall.
“We have competed in several of the UK Leon Paul Series competitions and have represented Scotland for the last three years in the largest Youth World Fencing Tournament in Wroclow in Poland, which has been a real honour.”
Honor and Lucia started fencing when they were only six; by chance they had shown an interest in the sport around the time Phil Carson was starting up Salle Ossian and the pair took to it immediately during a‘come and try’ session at Perth High School.
Lucia explained:“We saw a video of a major competition online and thought that the sport looked interesting.
“We asked dad to see if there were any local clubs and we loved it right away. It’s really different, exciting and our club has a real community spirit and fabulous women role models for us.”
The pair benefit locally from being part of the Live Active Leisure Talented Athlete Scheme and as part of this train twice a week at the strength and conditioning gym at Bell’s Sport Centre.
Lucia commented: “When we started as part of the Talented Athlete Scheme, Dan Scott came up to the club to watch us train and has devised a programme of strength and conditioning around the moves we make.
“Fencing is a high impact sport and you travel at speed so the force through your body means you have to be strong, and really fit.
“We go to the strength gym at a Bells and use the pool too. The talented athlete scheme offers us the chance to work with a really well respected strength coach and that has helped our fencing progress very rapidly.”
Lucia encourages everyone to give it a go, especially girls who are looking for something different.
She said:“It might not be the first sport girls think of when they’re looking for something but fencing really is a sport for everyone and there are lots of opportunities to compete once you get the hang of it.
“Give it a go!”