MOUNT Waverley’s Mayuri Muralidharan is a rapidly rising star in the sport of fenc0ing, participating in competitions, both nationally and internationally, throughout the second half of the year.

Mayuri, a Year 7 student at St Catherine’s School in Toorak, competes for Blacklords Fencing Club in Camberwell and for the Tizona Club, as well as representing her school in competitions.

In third term, Mayuri attended the second half of the schools competition held in Melbourne. She represented Black-lords and fenced in the under-13, under-15 and under-17 competitions in the lead up to the club championships.

She also competed in the national fencing championships in both the under-15 and under-17 categories in Sydney and then went to Adelaide to contest the under-20 event where she finished a creditable eighth.

Mayuri then travelled to Perth and fenced in the open competition, just missing out on a medal.

And, last week, she won gold in the state championships in the under-13 category, taking her tally to 29 medals this year.

Mayuri has other competitions coming up and is looking forward to the Koala Cup, which will be held in Sydney.

The young talent has a scholarship through the Australian Sports Commission.

Also in Year 7 at St Catherines, and also from Mount Waverley, Lillian Lu competed in a number of chess tournaments this year, most recently representing St Catherine’s at the girls inter-school chess competition.

Lillian played eight rounds of chess, scoring seven and a half wins out of eight, placing her first in the individual competition.

The young star has participated in many local club tournaments and is looking forward to competitions in Adelaide in December, a national competition, and the New Zealand Open Chess Championships during the January holidays.