En Garde at BBC Radio 2’s Fencing Sporting Challenge

On a snowy and particularly chilly first day of December, myself, Karim Bashir and fellow athlete James Thornton met up at a dance studio in central London to film Radio 2’s next sporting challenge. It was a really fun day and presenters Chris Evans and Johnny Saunders were great to be around. They are both genuinely funny, polite and professional guys.

Chris and Johnny started the day wearing hilarious musketeer outfits. They were a sight to see and it was hard for us to keep a straight face during filming. They were naturally very witty and bounced off each other brilliantly.

Karim did a great job of explaining the basics of fencing and came across really well on camera. What a pro! He’ll probably kill me for saying that.

Now for the actual challenge - I was teamed up with Chris and had ten minutes to turn him into a champion fencer. Chris was worried that Johnny was naturally more aggressive than him but I told him that it was all in the head! Chris had a great reach and lunge and so I was encouraging him to make use of it and push his arm out to score a hit. Chris was very interested in fencing and agreed with Johnny that it was a more complex sport than he had previously thought. It is more than just a battle, it was tactical, strategic and mental – not to mention, physical!

The challenge turned out to be a great fight. Both Chris and Johnny were neck-a-neck until the final hit. Check out who won here: http://bbc.in/fEaSs6

A great day was had by all and it was a pleasure to film with Johnny and Chris. Thank-you to Leon Paul for supplying the equipment and to Radio 2 for choosing fencing as this week’s sporting challenge. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it!