NICOLE Saunders’ rivals will be ‘on guard’ when she represents England in a fencing international in Poland next week.

The Year Seven Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School pupil will take part in the International Wratislavia Challenge where she is hoping for a top eight finish.

Nicole only took up the sport in 2013 but has already earned national recognition.

The QEGS pupil has set her sights on making it big in the sport and her ultimate aim is to fence for Team GB. And she is certainly going in the right direction as her talents have already been spotted by the sport’s governing body. She was selected for the Tomorrow Achievers Programme – England Fencing’s training programme for elite fencers.

Since taking up fencing Nicole has won the prestigious Leon Paul Junior Series for U11 girls sabre in 2014 and 2015 and she is currently top ranked in the Under 13s section.

In the British Fencing Cadet (U17) girls’ sabre she is ranked 32nd after only three competitions.

And last year, she was the youngest member of the Under 13 girls’ England Sabre Squad to compete in Poland, finishing 32nd out of 131 – quite an achievement for her first experience of fencing abroad.

Last year, she won the Under 12s girls’ Sabre British Youth Championship in Sheffield which earned her another selection for the national squad to compete in Poland where she is targetting a place in the top eight.

She attends both the Marshall Fencing Club for Sabre and Lancashire Sword Club for Epee. Nicole warmed up for her trip to Poland by winning a silver medal in a competition in Oxford.

She won all her pool fights then had a bye to the semi final. In the final itself she narrowly lost 10-7 to her Welsh opponent.

However it is not just in fencing that Nicole excels and she is truly a sporting all-rounder. At QEGS, she is a member of the football, badminton and netball squads while outside of school, she also plays netball for Chorley Inferno.

She is also a member of Blackburn Harriers athletics club and is ranked sixth in North West for U13s javelin and fourth in the region for U13s discus.