Fiona Haldane (Fencing)

Life enhancing and life-changing – that’s what sport is

Long-time fencer Fiona Haldane and a Mary Peters Trust athlete back in 1985 talks about her sport and what it means to her

“I’m a great believer in sport for life” says Team GB veterans fencer and retired biology teacher Fiona Haldane who lives in East Belfast.

“Sport is life enhancing and life-changing, it provides excellent discipline as well as physical and mental fitness. I’ve learned so many life lessons through sport, made lasting friendships, travelled to many parts of the world, and have had so much fun.”

In her 75^th year, Fiona is still having the time of her life competing for her clubs and at international level for Team GB veterans. She joined GB Veterans aged 50, having been encouraged by her long-time friend and fellow fencer Kate Elvin, who lives in Yorkshire and Fiona hasn’t looked back since.

Her most significant win was at the Veteran World Championships in Krems, Austria in 2012 where she was thrilled to secure a 3^rd place podium in Women’s Epee in her age category at that time, 60-69.

“I beat a Russian, an American and a French fencer who were all seeded higher. Receiving a bronze medal in Austria is a key highlight of my fencing career.”

Fiona was fencing for Grosvenor Grammar School at the time and its Club Chair, Sandra Martin, put Fiona forward for a Belfast Telegraph Local Heroes Award which she duly won helping to put veterans fencing on the map.

Back in 1973 it was an article in the Belfast Telegraph about different and more unusual sports that first got Fiona interested in fencing.

“I was an avid hockey player at school and at Queen’s University, then got married and started teaching science and Saturday morning sport became a challenge. My husband Robin was playing squash and badminton alongside a busy career as a civil engineer, and I felt that I needed my own sporting outlet to keep fit and healthy.

“I wanted to try something different, a sport I could be part of during weekday evenings and somehow fencing caught my eye. I joined the YMCA Club in South Belfast and was hooked. Soon I was fencing two nights a week and competing all over Ireland.

“Later when I became a mum of two young children fencing was a great antidote to a busy work and home life and was a super way to make new friends, and also to travel to unusual places.”

With patience, practice and good coaching Fiona quickly improved and won the Northern Ireland Senior Epee and the Irish Open six times each.

Fiona has also been the Irish National Champion five times. “The first time I was aged 42 and rather surprisingly 20 years later in 2012 when I defeated a young 22-year-old modern pentathlete, Natalya Coyle, by one hit in the final. Natalya went on to achieve an excellent 9^th place for Ireland at the London 2012 Olympics only a few months later. So cunning really can beat speed in epee fencing.”

It was back in 1985 that Fiona was awarded a Mary Peters Trust funding bursary alongside eight fencing colleagues, many of whom she keeps in touch with today.

Fiona’s award, as noted in a Trust 1985 annual report, was ‘to assist with preparations for and attendance at the World Championships,’ and she went on to compete that year for Ireland at the Worlds in Barcelona.

“It was wonderful to have the encouragement and backing of Mary and her Trust and it was a great experience, even though we (the Irish team) were soundly beaten.”

Fiona has also represented Northern Ireland in several Commonwealth Games, the most exciting she says was in Whistler, Canada, “We fenced in a restaurant halfway up Blackcomb Mountain reaching it each morning by ski-lift. It was stunningly beautiful and such an imaginative sporting venue.”

Fiona went on to compete at Veteran Commonwealths and secured a Gold in 2016 at Christchurch, New Zealand, “It was magic hearing ‘Danny Boy’ playing as I was on the podium.”

“Being part of the fencing community has quite simply enriched my life, and it all started with Mary Peters and the encouragement I received from her Trust. It’s no coincidence that I sought out a new sport in 1973 shortly after Mary’s Munich Olympics Gold medal win. It really inspired me spotlighting what women can achieve at the top level.

“As a biology teacher at a girls’ grammar (Bloomfield Collegiate School) I showcased female role models to encourage students to be the very best they can be. Chemist and DNA expert Rosalind Franklin was my science icon, and Lady Mary Peters, my sporting hero. Now I am a grandmother I pass these important messages onto my granddaughters.”

In addition to Mary and the Trust, Fiona is full of gratitude to all those who have helped her succeed over the years; from her coaches Bill Cumming and Mike Westgate to clubmates and committee members and of course her husband Robin who often travels with her to events throughout the world.

Following her 2012 Worlds accolade, Fiona also picked up a bronze in the 70-79 age category at the 2023 European Championships held in Thionville, France. She’s enjoyed considerable success as a team fencer collecting a silver with Team GB 60 plus veterans in Zadar, Croatia in October 2022 (Grand Veterans tournament) and a bronze in the Europeans during May 2024 in Ciney, Belgium, “At the latter, Germany took first place followed by Italy and we beat the French in a nail-biting fence-off match for the bronze medal.”

Last year (2024) during October Fiona competed in the World Championships (Veterans) in Dubai and this year in May returned from the 2025 European Veteran Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria with a fabulous bronze medal.  

Fiona currently fences at both Queen’s University and Stormont Fencing clubs and maintains she is having too much fun to give up. A recent foot injury will hold her back a little but, says Fiona, “I just need to set myself different targets – maybe not to be last!”

Fiona now helps promote and develop Veterans fencing across Ireland. Veterans actually begins at 40 and Fiona is keen to encourage experienced older fencers to move across and for other people to take up the sport.  She is part of a Fencing Ireland sub-committee and is enjoying giving back to the sport and also encourages new up and coming talent.

“I’ve been truly blessed and love the friendship and camaraderie that sport brings – it’s a real life-long pleasure. It has quite simply enriched my life and I’m so grateful to all who have made it possible.”