During its Congress, held last weekend in Leipzig (Germany), the International Fencing Federation (FIE) decided to continue with the modernisation of its sport. The delegates to the Congress voted for important technical changes in foil and sabre fencing.
Limiting “two light” actions
The most important change is to limit to a maximum the fencing action that causes two lamps to appear at the same time. This will make the refereeing much more objective. “It will help to make the sport easier to understand for spectators and bring foil fencing back to its roots.” said René Roch, President of the FIE.
Quota for women
Furthermore, the Congress decided to keep up with the quotas of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) concerning women. Today the FIE has more women involved in its commissions and its Executive Committee (between 11 and 17%) than most of the other International Federations, but the new task is to reach the quota set by the IOC (20%).
Reduce the number of competitions
The FIE also decided to cut down the total number of competitions. There will be no more than 9 World Cup and 5 Grand Prix events in the future (from October 2004).