Kensington Kid Now Nation's Top Youth Fencer

KENSINGTON, BROOKLYN — A Kensington 15-year-old is now the nation's top youth fencer.

During Team USA's silver medal-winning effort at the Cadet World Cup in Budapest this weekend, Skyler Liverant earned a bronze medal that put him at the No. 1 spot on the national youth fencing rankings.

"I was very focused throughout the competition, both bouts in direct elimination for top 64 and 32 came down to one touch to decide the winner but I stayed calm, relaxed and confident about what I was going to do and I believed I could do it!" said Liverant, who lives in Kensington and attends Brooklyn Prospect Charter School.

Liverant, who is now ranked 5th in the world, will seek to qualify for the fencing World Championships, which will be held in April 2020 in Salt Lake City.

Team USA coach Alex Zurabishvili said that while competing for the bronze medal, "Skyler was fighting for every touch, very focused and coachable, high level of focus, determined to win."

Misha Mokretsov, Liverant's coach at New York Fencing Academy, also heaped praise on the Kensington resident.

"Skyler is one of the youngest athletes on the traveling USA team (top 20 athletes), but nevertheless was the most experienced since he is the only one who made Team USA last year and participated in the World Championships!" he said. "We expect him to keep up his level of fencing and lead other USA fencers. He is very hard working and trained non-stop the whole summer while many were on vacation."

Mokretsov added, "Hard work pays off and we will keep working hard to qualify for World Championships in Salt Lake City and fight for medals there!"