Sport of gentlemen is flourishing in the East End

By Avril Ormsby

LONDON (Reuters) - Fencing, the sport of gentlemen, has attracted world leaders and royalty to its ranks over the years with its chivalry and status as the most swashbuckling and romantic of all martial arts.

It is still regarded as a public schools sport, but a group of youngsters from the East End are donning the fencing whites and showing they can cut it with the best thanks to their fighting spirit and desire to win.

Many of those who train at Newham Swords are from mixed ethnic backgrounds and single parent families, and fence in an area with the highest knife crime figures for the whole of London.

But the fencing club is also situated in the Olympic borough of Newham where much of the 2012 Games will be staged, including fencing.

It is 2012 that is acting as a spur for the youngsters.

Alex Savin, 13, who won silver at this year's England youth championships, was in Stratford in 2005 when London won its Olympic bid.

"I was shaking with excitement when they announced it," he said.

"I cannot put into words what an incentive it is to have the Olympics here."