Richard Kruse

Shoes: Hi-Tec Scimitar

Date of Birth: 30th July 1983

Place of birth: London

Living: London

Right/Left hand: Right

Height: 6ft 3in

Sponsors: Leon Paul, Hi-Tec, ScienceInSport

Highest world ranking: 23rd (Current ranking)

Highest national ranking: 1st (Current ranking)

About me on court

Event(s): Individual Men's Foil, Men's Foil Team

Coach: Ziemek Wojciechowski

Started fencing at age: 10

How I got started: I just so happened to live close to the British Olympic coach and was encouraged by him to try the sport at the local club.

First represented Britain: 2001 (Bonn)

Season's best performance: 2006 European Championship (Izmir - Turkey),

Individual Men's Foil, Silver Medallist

Major national achievements: Twice British Champion

Major international achievements: Top 8 in World Champs 2003, The Olympic

Games 2004 and ranking event Shanghai 2006

Biggest disappointment: Losing to the eventual winner in the 2003 World

Champs (Cuba) 15-13.

Favourite tournament: Aix-en-Provence

Most admired player: Alex MacInnes

Toughest opponent: Andrea Cassara

Best performance of career: Winning the European Zonal qualifiers (April 04) and hence qualifying for The Athens Olympics.

The one change I would make to improve my sport: Offer some substantial prize money for tournament winners! This would raise the stakes a little and therefore give competitions a bit more edge!

About me off court

My occupation: Graduate engineer at Buro Happold & Semi-professional athlete.

Professional qualifications: BEng in Civil Engineering - City University (London). Fencing Coach Diploma - TF University (Budapest).

When not playing I like to: Play the guitar, play snooker, watch The Simpsons, coach fencing and most importantly rest!

Most embarrassing thing happening to me: I once punched a door in frustration and fractured a metacarpal in my hand. It took a lot of explaining to the top brass in British Fencing as to why I couldn't fence for four weeks!

Favourite food: Twiglets

Favourite city or country: London - of course!

Favourite holiday destination: Havana

Superstition: I always try and do a bit of training before a competition, don't know if there is anything scientific in it though.

Richard reached the top 8 at the Athens Olympic Games and went a stage better in Turkey, where he topped his opening round with 5 wins out of five and then, in the Direct Elimination stage, he won three very tough fights against Barrerra (Italy), Majewski (Poland) and Coutant (France) to reach the top 4. In the semi-finals he easily defeated the reigning Olympic Champion, Brice Guyart of France before losing to the veteran German fencer Ralf Bissdorf for the Gold Medal.

Kruse wins European Silver Medal

Congratulations to Richard Kruse who came second in the Senior European Championships in Izmir, Turkey held from 2-9 July.


Richard reached the top 8 at the Athens Olympic Games and went a stage better in Turkey, where he topped his opening round with 5 wins out of five and then, in the Direct Elimination stage, he won three very tough fights against Barrerra (Italy), Majewski (Poland) and Coutant (France) to reach the top 4. In the semi-finals he easily defeated the reigning Olympic Champion, Brice Guyart of France before losing to the veteran German fencer Ralf Bissdorf for the Gold Medal.

James Beevers equalled his world championship performance of last year by reaching the top 16 in the same event with an excellent win over the Russian fencer, Petrov, before losing in the final seconds of his match to Koenig of France. This is the first time for 40 years we have had two fencers in the top 16 of the same major championships. Louise Bond-Williams also reached the top 16 at Women's Sabre where she lost to the eventual Gold medalist, Velikaia of Russia. Four other British fencers (Cadman, Hutchison, Mansour and Nicoll) reached the top 32.

The Men's Foil team reached the quarter-finals of their event with a victory over Holland in the round of 16 but then lost to Romania and the Women's Sabre Team beat Romania in the top 16 before losing narrowly, 43-45, to top seeds, the Ukraine, in the quarter-finals: tantalisingly close to the chance of a second medal.