FIE Congress awards 2014 Fencing World Championships to Kazan

Kazan, Russia, will host the 2014 Fencing World Championships. In 2015, the World Championships will take place in Moscow, Russia.

Kazan and Moscow were the only two cities submitting today their candidature to the FIE Congress for the 2014 and 2015 World Championships. Kazan stepped in for Sofia, Bulgaria, that had to withdraw for financial reasons.

The cities of Leipzig, Germany, and Doha, Qatar, presented their candidatures for hosting the World Championships in 2017.

The 130 national federations represented voted also on subjects related to the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The two team disciplines being rotated out of the Olympic Programme of Rio 2016 are men”s sabre and women”s foil. Since Beijing 2008, the FIE is rotating out two team disciplines as there are only 10 medal events for fencing at the Olympic Games. The FIE Congress decided today to continue with the order of rotation that started in Beijing 2008 when men”s foil and women”s epee team events were not on the programme. In London 2012, the team events in men”s epee and women”s sabre were rotated out.

The qualification criteria for Rio 2016 will be very similar to those for London 2012. The quota will be 212 fencers, to be distributed among 102 male and 102 female fencers plus 8 spots for host country Brazil as it sees fit.

The Congress ratified Ghana and Samoa by acclamation as new member federations. The FIE has now 149 affiliated members.

On the occasion of its” Centennial, the FIE was awarded with the special Fair Play Trophy of the International Fair Play Committee honouring the contribution of the FIE and fencing to the development of the idea of fair play among the youth world-wide.

FIE President Alisher Usmanov commented on today”s Congress meeting: „We would like to thank Kazan for their readiness to host the next year”s world championships. The Russian Federation and Kazan responded to our request as no other cities expressed their interest. In my capacity of FIE President I extend my sincere gratitude to Rustam Minnikhanov, president of Tatarstan, for his support. We are confident that Kazan can provide excellent facilities and infrastructure. Even with the little time left, the organising committee will be prepared to host a top level event. With regard to the team events in Rio 2016, the FIE has followed the logical order of rotation. I promise that we will not give up our hopes to obtain the two additional medals and will continue our efforts. In the meantime, we will work on developing fencing further.”