The Juniors & Cadets Asian Championships 2015 took place from 1 to 9 March 2015 in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates. A true first for the United Arab Emirates and their very young federation, established in 2005. To date, 300 license holders regularly practice fencing, either within sports clubs, or within the federation's training centres.
With 27 represented countries and 540 athletes in attendance, all weapons and categories together, the record established at the Juniors & Cadets Championships 2014 in Jordan has been defeated, a fact that demonstrates the vitality and strong development of fencing on the Asian continent.
The Emirates Fencing Federation has put much effort into organising these championships, among other things by introducing video refereeing for cadet events, using video streaming, a giant screen of 10 m x 4 m installed in the finals hall for video refereeing.
The Emirates Federation was able to obtain 2 daily live broadcasting hours on the Abu Dhabi Sport Channel, for the entire duration of the championships, as well as daily reports on the Dubai Sport Channel, all of it under the guidance of a renowned commentator from Saudi Arabia. 80 people participated daily in organising the events, backed by 40 volunteers.
The Emirates Federation was able to obtain the support of approximately 20 sponsors, including IPIC, an oil investment group, and the air company ETIHAD AIRWAYS (which donated 40 airplane tickets). The size of these financial contributions is a guarantee of success for such events.
The 4 main members of the Federation, Mr. Ibrahim Khaled, Executive Director of the Federation, Mr. Alaa Issa, Mr. Rami Saeed, and Mr. Mohamed Rebai, played a very important role. Each person was responsible for a certain domain, such as installations within the hall, administration, coordination with invited guests, etc. Everything was perfectly structured and organised.
The Asian Fencing Confederation granted subsidies to certain countries to enable them to send their athletes to these Championships.
The opening ceremony for the Championships took place on 1 March 2015. HH Sheikh Nahyane Bin Mubarak AL NAHYANE, Minister of Culture, President of the General Authority for Youth and Sport, HH Sheikh Salem Bin Sultan AL QASIMI, President of the Emirates Fencing Federation, Mr. Giorgio Scarso, Vice-President of the FIE, Dr. Celos Dayrit, President of the Asian Fencing Confederation, and Dr. Karled, President of the Jordan Fencing Federation, were in attendance. Mr. Dayrit thanked Mr. AL NAHYANE and the Emirates Fencing Federation for their support and contribution to organising these championships.
The individual and team competitions of the cadet category were entirely dominated by Japan (7 gold medals of 12 available). Kuwait, Hong Kong, and Uzbekistan obtained each 1 gold medal, Singapore won 2 gold medals in this category.
For juniors, Japan, still head of the rankings, continued its harvest with 7 new gold medals. Kuwait (2 gold medals for individual and team men's sabre), Kazakhstan (1 gold medal for team men's épée), Uzbekistan (1 gold medal for team women's épée), and Korea (1 gold medal for team women's sabre) completed the ranking.
Other nations also stood out and demonstrated the good quality of their fencers (Chinese Taipei, Lebanon, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines).
The organisation of these juniors & cadets Asian Championships 2015 was a great success. The Organising Committee, the members of the Technical Directorate, and the referees produced a great work together, to the great satisfaction of all participants.
AO Jie
Deputy Sport Director