A total of 60 athletes from around the world have gathered for the competition, the highest number of competitors to ever attend a Junior World Championships.

Those competing will do so across three disciplines in foil, épée and sabre over four days.

Udo Ziegler, secretary general of IWAS Wheelchair Fencing, opened the competition, commenting that the number of fencers present showed the sport to be "actively growing" with athletes attending from three continents.

Ziegler also commented that those competing were "future champions in the making".

The fencing action then took centre stage with the under-17 mixed foil competition with 15 competitors in the field.

For some athletes, it was the first major international competition of their short careers so far.

After some very exciting fencing, Russia's Oleg Gavrilenkov and the more experienced Lambertini of Italy reached the final.

Lambertini began strong and took an early lead.

Gavrilenko responded brightly but the gap Lambertini had opened proved to be too great with the Italian winning the dual 15-7.

The bronze medals in the under-17 foil competition were won by two Russians in Nikita Trfimov and Alena Evdokimova.

The tournament is set to continue tomorrow with the under-17 mixed épée competition in the morning before the under-23 mixed sabre event takes place later on,