SportsAid

Hollie Arnold

Aubrey Capern-Burgess

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Aubrey is a 16 year old fencer from Hull who is currently supported by the University of Hull through their partnership with SportsAid. He’s currently ranked as the Great Britain number 6 at U17 level in the epee discipline.

His best recent result was a Gold medal in the U16 category at the 2010 British Championships. Over the coming year he’s looking forward to training at the National Academy of Fencing and competing in the U17 and U20 British Championships as well as four Great Britain Internationals.

Aubrey, who first got involved in fencing through school and through one of his best friends, has to fit training around his school commitments on weekdays and normally trains for between one and two hours on most weekdays and also on Saturdays. As well as fencing training, he also runs on a daily basis and goes to the gym for strength work once a week. His motivation for all this training is the sense of achievement and pride when he gets good results and the opportunity to meet new people across the world.

Aubrey lists his best sporting achievements so far as being selected for the Great Britain cadet squad, becoming U16 British Champion, his bronze medal at the Tournoi Duc d’Alencon tournament in France, and his Gold medal at the Team Newcastle Cadet International.

His sporting hero is Rafael Nadal, ‘because of his determination, focus and ability to maintain an air of professionalism and humility. I have a second sporting idol – George Forman because he never gave up and became the oldest man to win the heavyweight boxing title.’

Aubrey names his parents as his biggest supporters for their support both financially and emotionally over the last eight years.

Bianca Nixon

Athlete page

Seventeen year old Bianca is from Leeds and boxes for the Hunslet Club. She is an extremely committed young boxer who has impressed the national coaches over the last couple of seasons with her dedication and passion for the sport. She has been boxing for the last four years.

On 5th June Bianca boxed in the ABAE National Championships Junior Class 5 category, in 54-56 kg and won the Championships 14-11. 2010 was her second year in the Championships and after an unsuccessful attempt last year, she came home with Gold.

She is now National ABAE Junior Champion at 54-56 kg for 2010, meaning her national ranking is now number one.

It was following her second place result at the Nationals in June last year, when Bianca attended an ABA training camp, that the national coach noticed her considerable commitment and drive.  

Now that Bianca has achieved a short-term goal of winning the National Championships, she is determined to remain consistent over the coming seasons and fulfil her long-term goal of being selected to fight for the senior GB team.

Billy Harding

Athlete page

Caitlin Chang

Athlete page

key achievements
• Current U17 and U20 British number 1
• Current U20 World number 27
• 2009 – U17 National Champion
• 2009 – FIE U20 World Cup, silver medal
• 2009 – Australian Youth Olympic Festival Team gold and individual bronze
• 2009 – Quarter finalist Senior Nationals
• 2008 – U20 National Champion
• 2008 – Quarter finalist Senior Nationals

aims
• Short term – Medal in 2009 European
Championships
• To compete at the Olympic Games

Caitlin has just added the U17 National Championship
title to her previous eight National titles.

She has also won her first Junior (U20) FIE
World Cup podium medal, a silver, losing in the
final to a World U20 top 10 ranked fencer, Emma
Vaggo of Sweden. Caitlin’s current FIE World
ranking is 27 at U20 level which is outstanding
for a 16 year old.

She has also been selected as the youngest
member of the British squad that will travel to
Denmark on 31st October to compete in the
European U20 Championships.

Speaking of her spot on the SportsAid 16 for
2016 list she said: “The past couple of years
have been really exciting for me and the support
of SportsAid has been really helpful. Being
recognised as a 16 for 2016 athlete makes all the
hard work worthwhile.”