More than 50 years have passed since Britain’s fencers last won an Olympic medal, but the 2016 contingent are intent on changing that statistic having already laid down a marker of intent before stepping on Brazilian soil.
Last week, Richard Kruse, Laurence Halsted and James Davis, with Marcus Mepstead as reverse, were announced as the quartet heading to Rio this summer after qualifying a British team place by right for the Games for the first time since the current qualification system was introduced in 1996.
For British number five Halsted, Rio will mark his second Olympic Games after making his debut in London four years ago as part of the team that finished in sixth position – their place in London having been assured by virtue of Britain being the host nation. [quote:British fencing has come on a lot since the last Olympic Games: Laurence Halsted: left]
It’s been an encouraging four years for Britain’s fencers on the international stage which included Team GB shocking Olympic champions Italy to win the first European Games gold in team foil last year.
And three-time European medallist Halsted is confident a first Olympic medal since Bill Hoskyns’ individual epee silver in 1964 is not far away.
“We have a very different team this year compared to in London four years ago, and it’s a team that has come on leaps and bounds,” said the 31-year-old.
“We’re in with a realistic shot for a team medal and across the team in the individual event as well, so there is a lot more potential this time around.
“On the other hand, this is not going to be another home Olympic Games, so there will be a big difference going out to Brazil.
“London 2012 was such a privilege to be competing in my home town, and I think sporting-wise, there will be a completely different atmosphere this year.
“British fencing has come on a lot since the last Olympics, and in the past year, we’ve beaten every team that we could face in Rio, so we feel that we have the potential to achieve great things.”
Halsted made his breakthrough onto the international stage in 2008, when he won silver at the European Championships in Kiev, before claiming bronze the following year after being stopped in the semi-finals by teammate Kruse.
In February, the team secured an Olympic berth with a ninth place finish at the Bonn World Cup, finishing as the highest European team in the World rankings outside of the top four.
And while Halsted admits the team faced an anxious wait for results to fall in their favour in Germany, he insists qualification was the perfect culmination of four years of hard work.
“It’s great to be heading to my second Olympic Games after such a long qualification process,” he said.
“We’ve known that we had qualified a place for a couple of months now but to be officially named in the team is a real milestone for us.
“The day we qualified was the strangest day. It was such an emotional rollercoaster ride because we were qualifying off the back of other people’s results on the day.
“We’d done enough up until that point to ensure we had a really good chance of qualifying, but when it wasn’t in our hands at some points, it was really tough for us.
“But it was incredible when we knew we had done it. We were all arm-in-arm and it was just an amazing feeling.”
Sporting success is a common occurrence in the Halsted family, with Laurence’s late father, Nick, having fenced for Great Britain at the 1968 Games in Mexico City, and his mother, Clare Henley-Halsted, competing in foil in both 1972 and 1976.
But while he admits he adored hearing his parents’ tales of Olympics gone-by as a child, Halsted insists there was never any pressure for him to take up the sport.
“My parents were both Olympic fencers so the Games was always a part of my upbringing,” he said. “I heard all these amazing stories about the athletes’ village and what it was like to walk out at the opening ceremony.
“It was wonderful that I got to experience that for myself in London and will again this summer.
“But there was never a drive for me to follow in their footsteps - it was just that it sounded so great that I wanted to do it for myself!”
By Katie Falkingham Sportsbeat 2016