LAUSANNE (April 5) - Russia ended the Olympic qualification period by ranking as the only nation to achieve a full quota of fencing athletes for the Rio Games.
The Russians, a traditionally strong fencing nation, completed the World Cup circuit with qualification in men’s and women’s team epee, men’s team foil and women’s team sabre earlier this year.
Results from Grand Prix events in March saw the country go on to qualify two athletes in each of the disciplines without a team – Alexey Yakimenko and Nikolay Kovalev in men’s sabre and Inna Deriglazova and Aida Shanaeva in women’s foil. No other nation achieved the feat.
The results confirmed all of the individual fencers who qualified by world ranking for men’s sabre and women’s foil. Seven additional places were available for fencers from disciplines with a team event whose countries had not qualified. The disciplines of women’s foil and men’s sabre only have individual events in Rio, so the top 14 from the Adjusted Official Ranking qualified along with the next two from each zone.
Fencers qualified by ranking for the Rio Olympics:
Men’s Epee – Bas Verviljen (NED), Kazuyasu Minobe (JPN), Yunlong Jiao (CHN), Nikolai Novosjolov (EST), Alexandre Bouziad (SEN), Jason Pryor (USA) and Maxime Brinck-Croteau (CAN).
Women’s Epee – Rosella Fiamingo (ITA), Sarra Besbes (TUN), Emese Szasz (HUN), Nathalie Moellhausen (BRA), Nozomi Sato (JPN), Man Wei Vivian Kong (HKG) and Leonora Mackinnon (CAN).
Men’s Foil – Yuki Ota (JPN), Jun Heo (KOR), Peter Joppich (GER), Alexander Choupenitch (CZE), Mohammed Ferjani (TUN), Maximillien Van Haaster (CAN) and Daniel Gomez (MEX).
Women’s Foil (no team event) – Arianna Errigo (ITA), Inna Deriglazova (RUS), Elisa Di Francisca (ITA), Lee Kiefer (USA), Aida Shanaeva (RUS), Ysoara Thibus (FRA), Ines Boubakri (TUN), Nzingha Prescod (USA), Hee Sook Jeon (KOR), Hyunhee Nam (KOR), Astrid Guyart (FRA), Aida Mohamed (HUN) Huilin Le (CHN), Carolin Golubytskyi (GER), Edina Knapek (HUN), Eleanor Harvey (CAN), Saskia Van Erven Garcia (COL), Hanna Lyczbinska (POL), Yongshi Liu (CHN), Noura Mohamed (EGY), Anissa Khelfoui (ALG) and Mona Shaito (LIB).
Men’s Sabre (no team event) – Alexey Yakimenko (RUS), Bongil Gu (KOR), Aron Szilagyi (HUN), Tiberiu Dolniceanu (ROU), Junghwan Kim (KOR), Max Hartung (GER), Aldo Montano (ITA), Eli Dershwitz (USA), Nikolay Kovalev (RUS), Daryl Homer (USA), Mojtaba Abedini (IRI), Diego Occhiuzzi (ITA), Alexander Buikevich (BLR), Vincent Anstett (FRA), Renzo Agresta (BRA), Joseph Polossifakis (CAN), Tamas Decsi (HUN), Ali Pakdaman (IRI), Mohamed Amer (EGY), Yemi Apithy (BEN) and Wei Sun (CHN).
Women’s Sabre – Chen Shen (CHN), Anna Marton (HUN), Vasilliki Vougiouka (GRE), Azza Besbes (TUN), Chika Aoki (JPN), Alejandra Benitez Romero (VEN) and Maria Perez Maurice (ARG).
There is one further opportunity for athletes to qualify for the Olympic Games via special zonal qualifiers which will be held April 16-17. National federations that have not qualified athletes for a particular discipline can send one athlete to each event. Federations that have qualified teams have until June 6 to nominate their fecners – the same day that Brazil must nominate who will use their host nation allocation.
Qualified fencers will still have the chance to gain valuable ranking points throughout the rest of the season (until the end of June).
Photo © Serge Timacheff