Locking up Olympic Qualifications in Tallinn

Nikolai Novosjolov (EST) won on his home soil, taking the gold at the Tallinn World Cup 15-11 over Gauthier Grumier (FRA). Top-8 performances by Silvio Fernandez (VEN) and Elmir Alimzhanov (KAZ) served to make the Adjusted Olympic Rankings (AOR) a bit more interesting.

This weekend’s event solidified the Olympic Qualification of several athletes. The French Federation issued a press release for Gauthier Grumier’s qualification and Soren Thompson (USA) updated his Facebook status with his qualification. Looking at the rankings, the top-12 in today’s AOR should all qualify. (The only spot we haven’t fully confirmed yet is Geza Imre’s (HUN).)

Top-8: Tallinn

Big movers:

Silvio Fernandez (VEN) uses a 2nd top-8 result to jump up into the 12th auto-qualification spot over teammate Ruben Limardo. Limardo is now 13th in AOR and the 1st American Zonal spot.

Elmir Alimzhanov (KAZ) also posted his second straight top-16 and is in the top-12 as well. His move to the top 12 opened up another Asian zonal spot. Because there are two Koreans already qualified, the second Asian zonal spot falls all the way down to Ali Yaghoubian (IRI) at 55th in the FIE World Rankings!

Right now the top 12 are comprised by 3 from Asia, 2 from the Americas and 7 from Europe.

Kelsey’s Fate out of his hands.

Before Seth Kelsey (USA) can pack his bags for London, he has to wait and see how Limardo and Fernandez do in Paris. At 74 points and failing to earn any points in Tallinn, the only way Kelsey can improve his position is by taking 1st or 2nd in Paris and having Limardo and Fernandez go out in the 64.

Kelsey’s best bet is for Fernandez to earn another top-8 to solidify an auto-qualification position. If the Venezuelans both come out flat and the Europeans (any of Borel, Fiedler, Rota, Tagliariol, or Boczko) go on a roll, then a European fencer would could take the 12th auto-qualification slot, pushing Fernandez down to take the 1st American zonal spot and Limardo the 2nd.

Zonal Battles

The European zonal spots are still up for grabs with Monal remaining.

Yannick Borel (FRA) and Joerg Fiedler (GER) currently occupy the European spots at 99 and 95 points. Right behind are the Italian pair of Tagliariol and Rota plus Gabor Boczco (HUN) – tied at 90 points. Tagliariol holds the higher world ranking at the moment.

The final event is in Paris. The points break down as follows:

1st: 32
2nd: 26
3rd: 30
5-8: 14
9-16: 8
17-32: 4
33-64: 2

Current Qualification Standings – March 6th, 2012

Full spreadsheet is available here. Results are the 2011 World Championships + Zonal Championships + best 5 World Cup results.