Double gold medallist Olympian rowing champion James Cracknell came to visit Brentwood School on 14^th July 2009 where he received a Fencing Lesson from Brentwood School Fencing Coach Karim Bashir. Bashir, an Old Brentwood and four times Commonwealth Games fencer also runs his own sports Sponsorship Company, Catch Sport and works closely with the British Athletes Commission, who's CEO coincidently is an Olympic rower himself. 

The purpose of the lesson was part of the BT sponsored Sunday Telegraph special Olympic supplement which was published on 26^th July.  James will be trying out some of the so-called "smaller" Olympic sports and reporting on them each week for 4 weeks. Fencing is the first of the sports he has tried. Also present on the day were Pete Gardner, CEO of the British Athletes Commission and Ben Campion, National Development Manager at British Fencing.

Coach Karim was assisted by two Brentwood School instructors and 2012 Olympic hopefuls, Katherine Kempe and James Thornton.  The session started with a taster lesson in Fencing to give James an idea and introduction to the sport. Karim took James through a beginner's session which included a warm up, instruction on basic footwork, an introduction to fencings three weapons (foil, epee and sabre) and then a lesson in basic attack and defence.  Karim then mixed this up with some games in each part to test James' flexibility, balance and fight. 

The whole session ended with Cracknell taking on Brentwood School Coach James Thornton in an epee duel, followed by a demonstration foil fight between Thornton and Bashir to give a feel for the sport at full international speed.  James then interviewed Bashir and Campion about the sport itself and where they see Fencing in 2012 and beyond.

Fencing Coach Karim Bashir commented, "It was a great afternoon with James Cracknell who demonstrated straight away why he has had such amazing Olympic success.  It was clear very quickly that he soaked up instruction and was determined not only to get fully involved but also get everything right.  With only 90minutes instruction James took on James Thornton and showed that he had a great deal of fight.  It was a privilege to spend time with a British sporting legend, to teach him a little bit about the sport I love and to top it all off, for the lesson to take place at my old school."