RIO DE JANEIRO (April 20) – The Olympic fencing venue gets put through its paces this week as the Rio Grand Prix in epee and the team world championships swing into the Carioca Arena 3.
The Grand Prix is a vital stepping stone for the fencers qualified for the men’s and women’s individual epee events as they vie for crucial ranking points.
The preliminary rounds take place on Friday at the EsEFEx Arena. The top 64 fencers in the women’s and men’s events will then move to Carioca 3 – the Olympic venue – where they will fence for medals on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Results here will have a barring on the draw for the Olympic Games itself.
It’s the last of three epee Grand Prix events this season, with the other two contested in Budapest in March and Doha in December.
(Live results from the Rio Grand Prix will be available here and links to a live stream from the round of 32 in each event will be posted on the FIE Facebook and Twitter feeds later this week.)
With the team event in women’s foil and men’s sabre rotated off the Olympic schedule this year, Rio is also the host of the team World Championships in these disciplines.
On Monday, the EsEFEx Arena will host the preliminary rounds in both events, where the teams will fight off until only eight are left in each weapon.
Those top eight teams will then get the chance to use the Olympic facilities in Carioca 3 where they will fight for the world title.
The women’s foil teams will be in action on Tuesday followed by the men’s sabre teams on Wednesday.
(Live results will be available here and links to a live stream from the round of 32 in each event will be posted on our Facebook and Twitter feeds later this week.)
These events will complete the test of the Olympic facilities and the World of fencing will return to Rio on 6 August for the Games.