St Albans siblings Alex and Nathalie Culkin capped off an impressive month of fencing with gold medals at a national tournament.

The annual Newham Series is a keenly-contested competition, made up of four events that attract most of the country’s top young fencers.

The pair had to battle through a full day of fencing, with Verulam School’s Alex starting at 9.30am and finishing at 5pm after 13 gruelling bouts.

The win comes on the back of a silver at the U14 British Championships and bronze in the British Schools Championship.

He said: “I’ve managed to amass around 4,500 England ranking points for U15 fencers, which means right now I’m the number one foil fencer in the country.”

Nathalie was undefeated on her way to second gold, which brought the overall series win.

The 12-year-old Samuel Ryder schoolgirl said: “It was one of those days. I managed 70 hits for and only 11 against, which is one of my very best returns.”