2011 in full swing

I seem to have had another little drought in my personal blog writing. Sorry about that. Time flies and already so much has happened since the last time I blogged. I have been a busy bee and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.

Has anyone been following my new Daily Telegraph blog? Here is my latest one: http://bit.ly/gbO5M5 I am very excited to be blogging for the Daily Telegraph. I have really enjoyed it to date and I hope to blog much more regularly in the lead up to London 2012. These are exciting times and I hope that I can capture the moment as much as possible in my writing.

Without wanting to repeat myself, in January I did some pre-season training at Poland’s brand new national training centre for foil in Gdansk. The facilities are incredible and the training was great. Every day I saw very young children taking group fencing classes at the national training centre. They have access to world-class facilities from such an early age and have a system set in place that will turn, some of them, into world-class athletes.

Indeed, I have just come back from yet another training camp in Gdansk last week and while searching for a tap to fill up my water bottle, I discovered an entire separate building devoted to classrooms, nurseries and educating these young children while allowing them to train and to fence.

This genuinely took me by surprise. Of course I have been to sporting institutions where they mix both academia and high-level sport together but these have always been big multi-sporting institutions. The fencing centre in Gdansk is entirely devoted to fencing and even more specifically, to foil. I think it is great.

Unfortunately for me, last week’s training camp in Gdansk came to an abrupt end when I injured my foot while landing badly in a strength and conditioning exercise. As I said in my Daily Telegraph blog, injury is an athlete’s nightmare. You’d be surprised how tender and sensitive the tendons and ligaments are in your foot but I hope to be back to fighting form as soon as possible.

I’d like to thank all the Polish staff and athletes alike who were so helpful, supportive and generous in their dealings with me after my injury occurred. They were fantastic and made a difficult situation a whole lot easier. Thank-you.

I’d also like to thank Balance Physio who have recently started supporting me. They are a top sports injury and physio clinic based in Clapham, South London. I am sure that with their help, I will be back fighting sooner than later. I have absolute faith in the people who look after me and this little test will only make me come back stronger.

On a much happier and positive note, in February I visited St. Benedict’s School in Ealing where I gave two assemblies on ‘Going for Goals’ and took some fencing ‘master-classes.’ It was a privilege and inspiring to see such passion and enthusiasm in the children. I met some bright young fencing stars with so much potential. St. Benedict’s should be very proud of their fencing set-up. Schools are an important recruiting ground for fencing and there seems to be a lot of young fencing enthusiasts at St. Benedict’s. It is wonderful to see. Indeed it was at school where my passion for fencing was ignited. I wish them all the very best of luck in their fencing pursuits, it was a pleasure meeting you all. Onwards and upwards!

Finally, the European tour comes to an end at the end of March and after a rest in April we move on to China and South Korea for the Asian leg of the circuit. I am looking forward to sharing with you, the ups and downs of the next stage of what is Olympic qualifying year.