At the Seoul Foil World Cup, fencers in the semi-finals and finals staged a protest in front of newly re-elected FIE president Rene Roch.
Both semi-final matches and the gold medal bout were all fenced to a 1-0 score.
Semi Finals:
Benjamin Kleibrinks GER b.Marco Ramacci ITA 1-0
Peter Joppich GER b. Ralf Bissdorf GER 1-0
Finals:
Benjamin Kleibrinks GER b. Peter Joppich GER 1-0
The fencers at the world cup level have been vocal this year about the impact of the new foil debounce and lockout timings on foil fencing and the resulting tactics that are necessary to ensure a win.
Fencers have complained of straight, direct thrusts that do not set off the light, as well as the increase of defensive tactics and attack-remises that disrupt the flow of a bout.
Just recently the president of the German fencing federation sent a letter to the FIE president which states Germany’s overall stance against the new foil timings, which are in place in the Senior and Junior world cups this season as a practical test.
In discussing the new foil timings, the German letter states:
| …the obvious consequences of the recent resolutions passed by the International Federation give rise to the fear that the intended positive effects of these resolutions might have opposite consequences… However, previous practice has shown that the implemented rapid changes lead to a distortion of competition particularly in foil fencing – with respect to both the impact and the blocking time – since high numbers of correct thrusts are not registered because the impact time is too long, so that the intended purpose has the opposite effect. Furthermore, the significantly reduced blocking times restrict the repertoire of actions in a way that the attractiveness, which has definitely existed so far, is deeply affected. We doubtlessly have the impression that both the winners and the losers, irrespective of their nationality, are equally dissatisfied or even frustrated with this development with respect to the currently defined parameters. We consider this to be due to an insufficient test series under real conditions, the results of which have, furthermore, not been notified to us in any way. In the interest of the continuous attractiveness of the disciplines, we request to modify the currently valid parameters as soon as possible. (emphasis added) |
The German letter confirms that the world cup level fencers are experiencing the impacts of the new timings reported after the first US NAC by Fencing.Net (Best Effort, Bad Result).
Today, Giorgio Scarso, the president of the Italian Fencing Federation (FIS) also announced that he wanted to see a change in the timings to better reflect the realities of foil and his letter was published by the FIS official web site.
Federscherma.it leads into the story with the introduction: "The new calibration of the scoring machines has provoked both criticism and bewilderment in the foil world which have culminated this past weekend in the Seoul episode where the German foilists launched an astonishing protest in the presence of the President of the FIE, Rene Roch, by fencing just to one touch in the semifinals and final bouts of the World Cup event."
In his letter, Scarso states:
| We already sent Mr. Pop (November 6, 2004) the results of our experiments in women’s foil, which were then followed by men’s foil, given the greater speed and power of men’s foilists. Therefore, as a first official act, at the international level, as the new President of the Italian Federation, I ask you to put on the agenda of the next meeting of the EC of the FIE our request for a partial modification of the impact times in signaling the touches in foil, which we propose to bring from 15 (13/15) to 10 (8/10) ms. This letter is followed by a detailed report of the SEMI Commission of the FIS which gives the support from the technical point of view to our proposal, with particular emphasis on the problem of the ‘microinterruptions in the signaling boxes.’ We believe that the optimization of the recording of the touches correctly executed will facilitate the application of the convention in fencing, and help produce a fencing event [foil] with a greater appeal for the spectators." |
The new timings proposed by the Italians seem to match up with timings that would allow the majority of direct thrusts to land while eliminating the most extreme flick actions. The "relaxed" timings would still allow flicks, but would not penalize the hard direct thrust (thus, no benefit to "suicide".)
The FIE has not yet issued a statement concerning either the protest or the letters. We’ll keep on top of this story to see what develops.