Friday 2nd March 2012
Dream Fencing Club
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In this Olympic year, Sarah Brown and Lorraine Kelly are taking on the Modern Pentathlon to raise money for PiggyBankKids.
It's part of the Gold Challenge, which will see thousands of people up and down Britain getting into the Olympic spirit and raising money for charity in the process. With lots of PiggyBankKids supporters taking part too (fancy it?), Sarah wanted to lead the way. She recruited ITV's Lorraine Kelly to the cause - and the whole thing will now be broadcast on Lorraine's show in the coming weeks. In the first of a series, here's Sarah on how training has been going so far...
Wednesday 1st February 2012Dream Fencing Club with Lorraine Kelly and Sarah Brown
I got a tweet from someone saying that Fencing is like Dancing but with Edge (credit to @Peter_Mun), and that seems to sum it up. Lorraine and I tipped up at Medway Park, home to Pentathlon GB South East region, and we are ready to expand our Modern Pentathlon skills. Both of us had busy starts this morning; I've been preparing for a maternal health meeting, and Lorraine more amusingly has been interviewing both PA and former Dallas star Charlene Tilton. So we arrive distracted and not really prepared. This changes fast once the epees came out.
Our fencing coach Yosif Angelinov from Dream Fencing Club is a former National Champion of Bulgaria, and these days is teacher to around 250 kids a week in South London as well as preparing some of our British talent for competitions. He takes us through the basic moves (forward, forward, back, back, forward, strike). It is all a bit Three Musketeers every time Yosif says “En Garde”, but we are advised to keep our epées straight and not be tempted by any Star Wars light sabre-style manoeuvres. Lorraine and I gave it our all and, helped by all the body suits, masks and dangerously long foils, I think we look the part.
Lorrain Kelly at Dream Fencing ClubAfter a quick lunch, we turn our attention to the final sport we have to undertake as part of our challenge. The laser shooting is carried out in a firing range at the Medway Park centre and we are lined up aiming at our targets with Bill, our fire arms instructor. Straight arm out holding the laser gun, one eye shut, holding steady and aiming true. It is not as easy as it looks but we both improve as we practice. The catch in the Modern Pentathlon is that the laser shooting takes place in between each kilometre of running – so it is done with a pounding heart making that straight steady arm harder to achieve. Well, we will do our best to hit our five targets on each round, and whatever happens this has been a lot of fun.