Lana-Emily Foyle with her shooting coach Bill Bland

Novice fencer and Ashford School pupil Lana-Emily Foyle has been selected to represent Great Britain at the Copa Atlantica Championships in Lisbon later this month.

The 11-year-old will compete in the Tetrathlon against competitors from Portugal and Spain in the 11-13 girls’ category.

Competitors are due to fly out to a training camp for two days of running, swimming, shooting and fencing.

Earlier, Lana-Emily competed in the under-13 epee at the English Youth Fencing Championships at Hatfield. It was her first major championship having started the sport nine months earlier.

One of the youngest in her age group of 11 to 12-year-olds, she found herself in a competition involving four pools of fencers, with results dictating positions for the knock-out phase.

Although she was disappointed with her performance, the competition gave her valuable experience, resulting in her achieving a ranking of 24 in the country, which is outstanding for a novice.