RIO DE JANEIRO (April 16) - The special qualification events by zone are now over and the line up for the fencing events at Rio 2016 is now complete, bar those selected for the host nation places (max. 8).
African zone
One place per discipline was available through this event, which took place in Algiers, (ALG). Egyptian fencers picked up two of those places increasing their Olympic fencing contingent to seven athletes.
The qualifiers were:
- Men’s Epee: Ayman Fayez (EGY)
- Women’s Epee: Juliana Barrett (RSA)
- Men’s Foil: Victor Sintes (ALG)
- Women’s Foil: Yousara Zakarani (MAR)
- Men’s Sabre: Fares Ferjani (TUN)
- Women’s Sabre: Nada Hafez (EGY)
Pan-American zone
Eight places were available through the events – one for each on men’s epee, women’s epee, men’s foil and women’s sabre plus two for each of women’s foil and men’s sabre. The competition took place in San Jose (CRC) and Mexico was the big winners, picking up three of the available spots.
The qualifiers were:
- Men’s epee: John Edison Rodriguez (COL)
- Women’s epee: Alejandra Teran (MEX)
- Men’s foil: Antonio Leal (VEN)
- Women’s foil: Isis Giminez (VEN) and Nataly Michel (MEX)
- Men’s sabre: Julian Ayala (MEX) and Yoandry Iriarte Galvez (CUB)
- Women’s sabre: Rossy Felix Lara (DOM)
Asia-Oceania zone
Ten additional places were available through this event which took place in Wuxi (CHN) – one each for Men’s Epee, Women’s Epee, Men’s Foil and Women’s Sabre plus three for Women’s Foil and three for Men’s Sabre. Vietnam were the big winners picking up three qualification spots each.
The qualifiers were:
- Men’s epee: Abdulaziz Alshatti (FIE)
- Women’s epee: Thi Nhu Hoa Nguyen (VIE)
- Men’s foil: Ka Long Cheung (HKG)
- Women’s foil: Po Heung Lin (HKG), Shiho Nishioka (JPN) and Yuan Ping (NZL)
- Men’s sabre: Ilya Mokretcov (KAZ), Kenta Tokunan (JPN) and Thanh An Vu (VIE)
- Women’s sabre: Thi Le Dung Nguyen (VIE)
European zone
The European Olympic qualifier offered more places than any other zone – one to each of men’s epee, women’s epee, men’s foil and Women’s Sabre plus four for each of Men’s Sabre and Women’s Foil. Türkiye picked up two places along with one fencer from ten other countries claiming the other ten spots.
The qualifiers were:
- Men’s epee: Jiri Beran (CZE)
- Women’s epee: Tiffany Geroudet (SUI)
- Men’s foil: Rene Pranz (AUT)
- Women’s foil: Malina Calugareanu (ROU), Delila Hatuel (ISR), Irem Karamate (TUR) and Aikaterina-Maria Kontochristopoulou (GRE)
- Men’s sabre: Sandro Bazadze (GEO), Pancho Paskov (BUL), Seppe Van Holsbeke (BEL) and Andriy Yagodka (UKR)
- Women’s sabre: Sabina Mikina (AZE)
Qualification through the official process is now complete and NOCs have until June 6 to nominate the fencers for their qualified teams. That is also the deadline for Brazil to allocate fencers to their eight host nation places.