SYDNEY Olympic medalist Kate Allenby has scored another success in Australia, winning a silver medal in the team competition at the Commonwealth Fencing Championships.
Kate, from Tavistock, also achieved an individual fifth in the event in Newcastle, Australia, last month.
Kate said the English team were delighted to collect a silver medal. ?I was really pleased. We were not expecting it, we were hoping to get a bronze medal if everyone went well.?
Kate admitted she made mistakes in the individual competition which left her just
outside the medal positions: ?I was pleased, but cross with myself because tactically I got the fight very wrong. I was in the lead, but I didn?t change my tactics accordingly ? I am a pentathlete not a fencer.?
Kate said she competed in the fencing event to help in preparation for the modern pentathlon which remains her first priority.
?It was the experience of competing in a major fencing competition I was looking for. It helps you competing in a major championship, because there are different pressures going on.
?The final against the Australians was similar to the final of the Olympics, you are very much in the spotlight. Having that experience again was very beneficial in the run-up to the next Games.?
Kate paid tribute to the people of Tavistock who helped with sponsorship and donations to get her to the competition. ?If it hadn?t been for the people of Tavistock, I would not have been able to compete, so thanks once again,? she said.
Kate seems to perform well at competition in Australia, it was in Sydney two years ago that she won the Olympic modern pentathlon bronze medal. She used to live in Perth, and her family came over to support her while she was competing in the fencing championship.
?It kind of feels like a second home, so maybe that helps my competition,? she said. ?I?m still a Tavistock girl though,? she added.
Kate is aiming to compete in the modern pentathlon at the Olympic Games again, in two years? time, in Athens. ?The next Olympics are still the goal, but I have got to qualify first, and I?m concentrating on that,? she said.
Browns Hotel in Tavistock helped with sponsorship to assist towards the cost of Kate?s trip to the competition. Martin Ball, general manager, said Browns were ?only too pleased to support a local talent and national heroine such as Kate?.