C.A. Bhavani Devi became the 1st Indian fencer to qualify for Olympics at Tokyo 2020. Let us see how qualification will work for Fencing for Paris 2024..
Fencing at Paris 2024 Olympics
Fencing at Paris 2024 Olympics will take place across 3 categories – Epee, Sabre and Foil. If you want learn about Sport of Fencing, read this easy explainer.
Each category will have 4 events – Individual Men, Individual Women, Team Men, Team Women. Hence, there are overall 12 events in Fencing at Olympics.
Qualification System
Team Qualification:
In each of the 6 team events, 8 teams will qualify. Qualification is going to be based on FIE World Team ranking. The qualification period for team competition is from 3 April 2023 to 1 April 2024.
The top 4 ranked teams as on 1 April, 2024 will directly qualify for Paris Olympics. Next 4 quotas are allocated based on highest ranked team of the respective 4 FIE Zones – Africa, America, Asia-Oceania, Europe. For a team to get zone quota, it needs to be ranked in top-16 World Ranking.
For the 8 nations who qualify for Team Competition, 3 individual quotas will be also be allocated in respective individual competition. Hence, 24 individual quotas will be allocated through team qualification.
Individual Qualification:
In each of the 6 individual events, apart from the 24 athletes qualified through team events, 10 more athletes will qualify. In each event, only 1 athlete from a nation can get individual quota.
These 10 quotas are allocated as per following:
- Zonal Ranking Quotas: Highest ranked zone athletes as per FIE Ranking on 1 April,2024 who have not yet qualified through team route will get quota. There are 2 zonal individual quotas available for Asia-Oceania group. Overall 6 individual quotas will be given through zone ranking.
- FIE Zonal Qualifiers: 4 individual quotas will be allocated through zonal qualifiers – One quota per zone.
Qualification Timeline:
Ranking qualification period: 3 April 2023 – 1 April 2024
Zonal qualifying events: 15-30 April 2024
From an Indian perspective, given the current ranking, we will have a chance of an athlete qualifying through the individual quota route only. Only Bhavani Devi and Karan has a World Ranking under 100.
World Ranking as on 02 April 2023
India Team Ranking:
Women Epee: 29
Women Foil: 26
Women Sabre: 27
Men Epee: 40
Men Foil: 33
Men Sabre: 28
Individual Ranking (Highest ranked athlete in event)
Women Epee: Taniksha (107)
Women Foil: Ira (334)
Women Sabre: Bhavani Devi (45)
Men Epee: Udaivir Singh (134)
Men Foil: Dev (161)
Men Sabre: Karan Singh (63)
