THREE Olympians were on show at Colfox during an evening of fencing aimed at inspiring youngsters to become future stars of the sport.

West Dorset Fencing Club coach Shirley Parker, who represented Great Britain at the 1960 and 1964 Olympics in Rome and Tokyo respectively, was joined by Allan Jay and Calum Giles.

Jay, honorary president of the club and arguably the greatest fencer in British history, competed in five Games and won gold at the 1959 World Championships.

Hockey player Giles travelled to Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney four years later as part of the British team.

He is considered one of the world’s best drag flick and penalty corner specialists.

Jay and Giles were on hand to lend their support to West Dorset Fencing Club and give budding sporting stars tips and an insight to competing at the highest level.

Reflecting on the night, Parker said: “It went brilliantly and we all had a really enjoyable time. There were roughly 25 people present and I think they all left having learned something.

“Everyone had a go and Calum even joked he was thinking of taking up the sport. It was nice to see the youngsters showing him a thing or two.

“We meet weekly but with two Olympians coming down we wanted to make the evening a bit special, so I emailed all our members to get as many people down there as possible.”

Parker founded West Dorset Fencing Club 18 months ago and – boosted by a valuable lottery grant – it is continuing to go from strength to strength.

However, fencing is an expensive sport and more funding is needed to provide the club’s members with up-to-date equipment that would assist their development.

Parker, who won gold at the 1966 Commonwealth Games, added: “Ideally, we need the electric equipment but that costs a lot of money.

“Hopefully some good may come of the evening and someone will come forward to help us out. At the moment we use ordinary foils and to be kitted out properly we are looking at around £2,000.

“But we have improved hugely in the last 18 months and now when you arrive it looks like a proper fencing club. We have members ranging in age from nine to 76.”

West Dorset Fencing Club meet at Colfox on Thursday evenings from 6pm. For more information, contact Judy Clarke on 07786 354403.