MALVERN Hills Sword Fencing Club completed a successful tour to Ghent.

A squad of competitors, led by club and Great Britain coach John Rees, competed in the Belgium Epee International Open hosted by Schermclub Latem-Deurle.

Boys and girls, ranging from under 12s to 17s, also came from Holland, Switzerland, France and Germany.

Malvern’s athletes showed a team approach, supporting each other and chatting through tactics.

This led to fine results with Poppy Clark taking eighth place in the under 14 girls and new member Oliver Hodgson 17th in the under 14 boys.

Four girls entered the under 17s event with all performing well within the poules and surviving the cut into the direct elimination phase.

Becky Wreyford and Christie Ma got through to the semi-finals where they met.

Wreyford just managed to get the upper hand on this occasion and then led the final from the start in a close clash with Katelijn Kroese from Holland, taking gold 15-13.

Ma took bronze with club-mate Lucy Austin 11th.