Threetown High School (Thresec) and Sogakope Senior High School (Sogasco) emerged winners of the maiden 2017 Hungarian Ambassador Fencing Cup held yesterday at the RLG Hathramani Hall of the Accra Sports Stadium.

For their prizes, Thresec and Sogasco, who won in the male and female categories respectively in the inter schools Fencing championship, would receive air tickets to Hungary for training camps and competition.

Thresec from the Volta Region beat Azoka Memorial from the Northern Region by 15-13 whilst Sogasco defeated Thresec females 12-8 to emerge victors.

The competition drew participation from seven schools namely, Sogakope Senior High and Threetown Senior High from Volta Region, Azoka Memorial and Bawko Technical High from the Upper East Region, Ningo Senior High and Accra Academy from Greater Accra and Kumasi Wesley Senior High from Ashanti region.

A total number of 35 fencers represented the schools.

The Ghana Fencing Federation (GFF) organised the event, in collaboration with the Hungarian Embassy, to promote the discipline at the various institutions.

Hungarian Ambassador to Ghana His Excellency Andras Szabo explained why his outfit decided to support the sports which is not popular in the country.

“Our main aim is to develop Sports in many nations especially fencing, therefore we would like to promote Fencing in Ghana.  We want to collaborate with many international institutions as much as we can to make sure we put fencing on the world map although it is an expensive Discipline and much equipment would be needed.

“Very soon we will organize exchange programmes where the Ghana Fencing team will be in Hungary for an intensive training.

“In- addition, we will introduce an African fencing equipment manufacturing company to provide all the necessary equipments to the Ghana Fencing Association,”

The Ghana Fencing Federation President Mr. Mohammed Mahadi, said the decision to start the competition at the high school was to expose the students to the sport.

He praised the the fencers for their high level of performance and hoped that more institutions would join in future.

Mr. Mahadi said the event serves as a platform to get fencers into the cadet and junior national teams.

He said the fencing National team is currently preparing for the World Fencing Championship in Germany this year and hoped the Ministry of Youth and Sports would assist in their participation.

The President of GFF presented a ceritificate of appreciation to the International Fencing Federation's (FIE) President Mr. Alisher Usmanov, through the Russia Embassy, for supporting the training of the sports masters to promote the game.

He said the training of the coaches, supported by the International Charity Fund is currently underway at the National Fencing Academy in Accra.

The event was supported by HAD, The Path Sports Management and PBT, all Hungarian companies as well as Silver Star Auto, Kingdom Books and Stationery and Koala.