HALESOWN fencer Steve Potter won a silver medal at the British Veterans’ Fencing Championships.

The 49-year-old came second in the sabre event held in Gloucester from Friday, February 28 to Sunday, March 2.

The format for these championships, which are open to all fencers over the age of 40, is two rounds of poules, in which groups of six fence each other, followed by direct elimination. This stage involves scoring 10 hits within six minutes with a one minute rest after five hits.

Potter reached the quarter-finals without much difficulty, but then had a tough fight to overcome Pete Hutton 10-9 before beating Carl Morris 10-6 to reach his first national final.

There he met former champion Duncan Rowlands and had another close fight, Potter just missing the last hit to go down 9-10.