The top 4 qualifying teams remained in the top 4, but an early loss by Japan gives Germany hope.
In the Olympic team foil event, the top-4 teams qualify directly to the Olympics followed by the top team in each Olympic zone (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe). Great Britain is allowed a spot due to being the host nation.
The top 4 spots were resorted with Italy climbing to #1 and China falling to 2nd. Russia’s 3rd place result in Paris puts them within 4 points of Japan for the 4th automatic qualification spot. As the top European team not already qualified, that doesn’t help Russia directly, but does benefit Germany.
If Russia earns another top-4 result and Japan finishes out of the top-4 in the next event, then Russia would be tied with Japan for the 4th spot. Russia has the slightly better record in world cup competition at this point.
Assuming Russia moves up to 4th, that puts Japan as the Asia qualifier, knocking Korea out. Germany then gains entry as the top European team not already qualified.
The United States and Egypt remain qualified from their zones and no other nation is close enough to do anything to their spots.
At this point, we’re closing the books on Poland. They just don’t have a shot being 50 points behind Germany.
In short:
- Germany should be cheering on Russia.
- Korea should be cheering on Japan.
- Poland can still work to ruin someone’s day.
Fencers from Korea, and Germany are going to have to start looking more at their individual results to be able to gain entry for the individual event should their teams get frozen out of the team event. The individual event is filled first by the top 3 fencers from the team entries, then by the top ranked individuals from countries not already qualified.
Here are the current teams qualified for Men’s Team Foil in the Olympic Rankings. I’ve included Germany and Poland and their points to illustrate where they are in the hunt:
| QUAL | Name | Nationality | Zone | Pts |
| 1 | ITALY | ITA | Europe | 312 |
| 2 | CHINA | CHN | Asia | 300 |
| 3 | FRANCE | FRA | Europe | 239 |
| 4 | JAPAN | JPN | Asia | 236 |
| EU | RUSSIA | RUS | Europe | 232 |
| GERMANY | GER | Europe | 223 | |
| AM | U.S.A. | USA | Americas | 200 |
| AS | KOREA | KOR | Asia | 172 |
| POLAND | POL | Europe | 170 | |
| HOST | GREAT BRITAIN | GBR | Europe | 157 |
| AF | EGYPT | EGY | Africa | 147 |
Next events:
- La Coruña – Spain – February 19th
- Bonn – Germany – March 18th