The FIE in Doha, Qatar

The Fencing Channel is on the Persian Gulf! Doha is the capital of Qatar, and alsothe location of The 2005 FIE Congress. Lots of decisions are being made, so check back here for our daily updates!

Weather outlook: Sunny.

Please direct questions to info@fencingchannel.tv.

Note: As we get more information, it is inserted into the appropriate paragraph.

Daily updates:

Monday, Nov 14, 2005

Interviews coming soon: Fencing Channel interviewed the President of the FIE, and he summarized what happened at the congress. We also interviewed the President of the Qatar Fencing Federation, and the President of the Chinese Federation about Beijing and Chinese fencing in general. (It turns out, the Chinese coaches go to elementary schools and pick out future champions to train).

Jochen Farber (FIE, Head of Media) distributed a summary of some topics:

OLYMPIC GAMES PROGRAMME FOR 2008 — The FIE congress 2005 in Doha decided to continue to seek 12 medals at Olympic Games... There will be 6 individual and 4 team events in Beijing 2008. Thus the FIE decided to have full gender equity at all Games. 50 percent of the events held in 2008 will be male competitions and the other 50 percent will be female competitions. As the congress adopted on the first day of its meeting the IOC Ethic rules of non-discrimination, the follow
up on day two was a logical move. The proposal from the special rules commission for the Olympic Games (3 male team and 1 female team event) wasrejected. Due to that new situation, the national federations have now time until April 2006 to discuss the issue with their athletes and thentake the decision of which weapons in the team event will be in and out for the next Olympics. This decision will be taken in April 2006 at the
General Assembly in South Korea. Teams who will be out for Beijing 2008, will be back again for the 2012 Games in London.

TRANSPARENT MASKS WILL CONTINUE BUT ONLY IN SABRE FOR THE MOMENT —
The congress of the FIE was not in favour to support the idea ofintroducing the transparent masks....

Sunday, Nov 13, 2005

Foil Timing Changes: Foil times will not be changed. They will stay as they are.

Nov 14, 2005 Update: This means, the timings stay as they currently are, the same timings as at Leipzig 2005 — no more changes, the testing is over, the timing change has been ratified.

Transparent masks: It is not mandatory for foil or epee. This will be a big surprise to manufacturers, who by-and-large, understood the change to be mandatory.

Nov 14, 2005 Update: The issue of transparent masks will arise again in the future, but for the present it is tabled, and transparent masks are not mandatory for Foil / Epee.

World Championships 2007: St. Petersburg. The Russian Federation won the vote (52-40) and has promised 100,000 (Euros, we believe) in prizes for medal winners and coaches. They have furthermore promised to fund 2 persons from each fencing federation (federation presidents, plus one other, for 118 federations) from the Russian budget. There are between 30 and 45 countries that have never participated in the World Championships, who will now be able to attend.

Saturday, Nov 12, 2005

Women's Epee: The main news of the day comes from the President of the Qatar Fencing Federation. He announced today that a Women's Epee Grand Prix will be held in Doha, Qatar, in 2006. It is the first Women's Grand Prix in the Arab world.

Next Congress: It has also been decided that the FIE Congress in 2007 will be held in Italy.

Main topics for tomorrow:
Russia or Bulgaria? Who shall host the 2007 World Championships?

Saturday Update: Added Nov 13, 2005:

Rainbow fencing: Color uniforms are now acceptable, excepting all-black uniforms. Furthermore, designs on the mask are acceptable — but they must be sent to the FIE 30 days before they are used.

Nov 14, 2005 update: The FIE is not approving the mask designs, the designs merely have to be sent to the FIE 30 days before they are used in competition.

Grand Prix for all: Continental Championships now have the same FIE status and the same coefficient as a Grand Prix. This will have a big impact on US fencing and the Latin American countries.

Target drift: The bib and the arm were dropped until 2007. The reason given is that there is not enough analysis of the change.

Friday, Nov 11, 2005

Foil Target: There is no vote yet... however it looks like the Bib- and Arm-targets will not work. It not confirmed yet by a vote, but foil target will (most likely) not change this year.

President Roch said the new targets have not been tested enough, and that the issue should be investigated for a future FIE Congress to decide (in the next two years). The objective is the Olympic Games. This has caused some reaction in the community: Cost? Safety?