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Road to Athens: Women's Foil Qualifications
The 2003-2004 Olympic Selection season concluded with the St. Petersburg World Cup on March 28, 2004. Based on the results of the 15 world cup events, the first 16 of 24 Olympic Qualification Berths have been set.
Selection Criteria
Women’s Foil only has an individual event for the 2004 Olympic Games. Because of this, only 24 individuals qualify for the event. The top 8 in the world rankings earn the first 8 spots. The next 8 spots are selected by zone, with 3 to Europe, 2 to the Americas and Asia, and one to Africa. In no case may a country have more than 3 fencers and only one fencer per country may be selected by the zonal criteria.
The 16 fencers that have qualified are indicated in the chart below:
| Qualification | Name | Country | World Rank | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 - #1 World Rank | Valentina Vezzali | ITA | 1 | 309 |
| 2 - #2 World Rank | Sylwia Gruchala | POL | 2 | 281 |
| 3 - #3 World Rank | Giovanna Trillini | ITA | 3 | 230 |
| 4 - #4 World Rank | Roxana Scarlat | ROM | 4 | 191 |
| 5 - #5 World Rank | Aida Mohamed | HUN | 5 | 191 |
| 6 - #6 World Rank | Ekatarina Youcheva | RUS | 6 | 181 |
| 7 - #7 World Rank | Svetlana Boiko | RUS | 7 | 163 |
| 8 - #8 World Rank | Laura Carlescu-Badea | ROM | 8 | 161 |
| 9 - Zonal: Europe | Adeline Wuilleme | FRA | 9 | 153 |
| 10 - Zonal: Europe | Margherita Granbassi | ITA | 10 | 136 |
| 11 - Zonal: Europe | Gabriella Varga | HUN | 11 | 121 |
| 12 - Zonal: Asia | Jie Meng | CHN | 12 | 114 |
| 13 - Zonal: Asia | Hyun-Hee Nam | KOR | 17 | 80 |
| 14 - Zonal: Americas | Erinn Smart | USA | 26 | 55 |
| 15 - Zonal: Africa | Wassilia Redouane | ALG | 50 | 29 |
| 16 - Zonal: Americas | Mariana Isabel Gonzalez | VEN | 64 | 19 |
Continental Qualifying Tournaments
The final 8 athletes will have to compete at continental tournaments in order to win a spot at the Olympics. Each country that does not already have a fencer qualified is allowed to send one athlete to compete in their zone’s tournament. The top 3 finishers from the European tournament, top 2 from the American and Asian, and winner of the African tournament will earn an invitation to the Olympic Games.
Germany, which won the bronze medal in the 2000 team event will have only one fencer represented if she can place in the top 3. That will most likely be Simone Bauer who is one place in the rankings ahead of her teammate.
The tournaments will occur in April with Olympic Bids sent to the national federations in May.
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