St Catharine's College student Dan Twine looking forward to representing British Fencing at sabre event in France
When Dan Twine steps out on to the strip to represent British Fencing at the Sabre Grand Prix in France later this week, it will mark the realisation of a long-held childhood ambition.
The third year Natural Sciences undergraduate from St Catharine’s College, who took up the sport at the age of 12, has previously been called up by his country for a couple of lower-level events.
But 74 miles south-west of Paris in the city of Orleans, Twine will get the opportunity to test himself on a much bigger stage.
The call-up has been coming, with a succession of top 10 finishes seeing Twine move up to ninth in the national rankings. Nevertheless, it did not make the confirmation of his inclusion any less special.
Twine said: “I could see it coming because of the way I’ve been going up in the rankings but to actually get it, especially with also getting into the top 10 in the rankings, it was a really amazing feeling.
“I’ve been fencing for 10 years and for almost all of that I’ve been training quite seriously.
“With the coaching I’ve been getting at Cambridge and seeing the improvements finally come after sticking with it for so long, it was really, really satisfying.
“It’s always been a very big part of my life, but now I can go abroad and get these higher-level experiences. It means so much to me to be going.
“I featured in a couple of events before like the Youth Five Nations against the likes of Scotland and Wales and in an Under-20 event, but that was when a lot of the squad had been called up for another competition so in a lot of ways it felt like it didn’t count.
“This time I’m in the squad on merit because of my results throughout the season.”
Basildon-raised Twine found his love for fencing at Billericay School, where he worked under the tutelage of Chris Green, a coach with a vast amount of experience dating back to his early competing days in the 1950s.
It provided Twine with the perfect introduction, but it has been the guidance of one-time Romanian national champion Alex Bela at Cambridge University Fencing Club that has helped things to accelerate at pace.
“Chris does all three weapons and is very much in it because he wants to see kids improve and be able to do fencing. He’s definitely as much a mentor as he is a coach,” said 22-year-old Twine.
“Before I came to Cambridge, Chris was mainly an épée coach and I do sabre. Chris could coach me but Alex has been dedicated to sabre coaching for 11 or 12 years and he runs the most successful fencing school in the UK now.
“He produced a couple of successful fencers a few years ago, Ian and Ethan Ren. They dedicated themselves to him and his coaching and I think one of them won a silver medal in the European Under-17 Championships. That was a big success, much more than the UK normally gets.
“I was lucky enough that he was at Cambridge when I arrived and I started working with him.
“I got more and more lesson time with him and training more seriously under his guidance.
“A lot of the endings to my results (this season) have been unfortunate and I definitely feel like I could do even better, much like probably all fencers.
“But when I compare it to last year, the year on year improvement is absolutely massive.
“Last year I was 57th in the Hamlet Open competition for example and this year I came second in it.
“I’ve made at least a round further in every other competition as well.
“Before I came to university I wasn’t even in the top 50 in the rankings and now I’m ninth.”
And while Bela has helped to enhance Twine’s technique, it has gone hand in hand with improvement in the sport’s other key requirement.
Fencers are on their own out there with no team-mates for support, making it a necessity to possess a strong mentality.
“If you can’t keep yourself calm and composed then it becomes tough,” said Twine.
“Maybe there is a mistake from the referee, maybe your opponent is particularly aggravating in their reactions to getting hit and everything, maybe you try something that doesn’t work and you don’t understand why – you need to be calm, very creative and figure out how you’re going to trick your opponent next.
“And you’ve also got to deal with any stress or tension or worry that it’s not going to work.
“If you do get a bit tense or lose your cool a bit then your timing will suddenly go because the timing is so, so tight and important.
“Whoever keeps themselves more calm and composed not only in thinking but also in how they do their actions will have a massive advantage.
“It’s never come naturally to me, especially during my teenage years. I used to struggle with staying calm and even now I have a lot of matches and competitions where if I’m not in the right mood and mindset I will really throw it basically because I’m not composed enough.
“Every year, as I’ve been improving everything else, I’ve also been improving my ability to make myself calm and give myself the right mental cues to relax.
“It’s very much something you have to learn, I think most fencers are like that. It’s a high adrenaline sport after all.”
Twine, who has worked at UPS as a Covid tester and at Cambridge Assessment to help fund his fencing since arriving at St Catharine’s in 2019, will get his competition under way tomorrow.
But in contrast to his appearances on home shores, the level of expectancy – and therefore pressure – will be much lower.
Twine admitted: “I definitely don’t have any ambitions to go there and pull out some crazy results.
“I’m planning to go and get the experience, get some confidence of having seen the speed and what the tactics are like at these events.
“If I were to somehow make it through to a higher round in my first one it would be an amazing surprise, but I’m not waiting on that, I’m just going there to have a go.
“What it will mean is I’ll train even more under my coach so when I go next season from September, I’ll have the experience of being there and it will help me to be a bit more confident and calm.
“Hopefully I will have improved over the year as well and not have as much first World Cup tension and anxiety – I’ll be a bit more comfortable.”
One thing Twine does have complete clarity on is the future.
He is determined that this week’s trip to France will be just the start of a successful fencing career.
And he is prepared to make the necessary sacrifices.
“I’m much more passionate about my sport now. I want to stay true to myself with that, be fair to myself and make sure I don’t get a job that takes over my sport like many do,” said Twine, who has also been supported by the St Catharine’s sports bursary.
“I want to do a combination of freelance work, maybe coaching or tutoring and I’m not sure exactly how it will go, but something where I can fit it around my fencing life as a priority.
“I might have to move somewhere to another country where there’s a very good club with a good training culture and environment where I can live near and possibly train with the national team of that country. It would be great to see how I can go in that sort of framework.
“The reason I need to do that is unlike other European countries that take fencing seriously, the UK doesn’t fund its athletes when they get to national team level so everyone here that is trying to get to a high level is completely self-funded.”
