Alex O'Connell, a former Brentwood School pupil, has been nominated for the Brentwood Gazette Sports Awards 2009 for fencing.

Alex, 20, competes at the highest level of fencing. He was part of the GB Beijing Olympic team and is a fantastic role model for British fencing. Alex, who has been fencing since he was 7 years old, has since won all major domestic titles including being Great Britain's youngest ever senior national sabre champion and was Britain's first world champion when he won the U17 championships in Austria in 2005. He is also junior and senior commonwealth champion.

Alex achieved 10 A* GCSE's and 4 grade A A-levels at Brentwood School whilst competing at the top level in fencing and still trains at the Brentwood School Sports Centre fencing salle. He is currently juggling his fencing with full-time studies at Cambridge University where he finishes his degree this year then plans to fence full-time in the readiness for the 2012 Olympics. British Fencing and UK Sport have identified Alex as an Olympic medal prospect.

If you would like to vote for Alex O'Connell please buy this week's Brentwood Gazette and complete the vote form on page 35.

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