FENCING:Julian Drew
NEXT week the first-ever world championships in an Olympic sport to take place in South Africa will be held in Cape Town when the World Fencing Championships are staged at a newly constructed venue in Culemborg.
Just weeks before the 2004 Olympic Games decision in Lausanne it is important for Cape Town that the event run smoothly.
Paying spectators are likely to be thin on the ground for a sport which is little known to the South African public but the local fencing community and participants at the championships should ensure that the main 2000-seat venue where the finals take place – and where the television cameras will be – is not embarrassingly empty.
Fencing as a sport has been around for at least 3 000 years but the development of the three weapons used today and the rules associated with them is more recent.
The foil is a point thrusting weapon with a flexible, rectangular blade and a blunt point. Valid hits on an opponent, known as touchs, must be made on the torso of the body. The foil is the descendant of the duelling rapier which itself evolved into the shorter and lighter court sword in 18th century France. In foil play the fencer wears a metallic vest covering the target area which is known as a lame.
It is connected at the back to a reel wire linked to the scoring machine. The spring- loaded tip of the foil is also linked to the lame by a wire connected to the inside of the hand guard and when a valid touch is made on an opponent a coloured light shows on the scoring machine. A hit outside the target area shows a white light.
The pe was developed at the end of the 19th century with the demand for a practice and competition weapon which more closely resembled the modern duel.
It is also a point thrusting weapon and is heavier than the foil with a rigid, triangular blade. The pe is also wired but because the whole body is the target, the fencer does not wear a lame.
The sabre is the modern version of the slashing cavalry sword and is similar in weight to the foil but with a flexible, triangular blade. It is both a slashing and point thrusting weapon. The target area is anywhere above the hips, representing the cavalry rider on a horse. The fencer wears a lame covering the body from the hips up and the mask too conducts electricity.
In individual competition fencers are placed in ranking pools of up to seven fencers and fight a series of round robin bouts where the winner is the first to score five touchs. Based on the rankings from this round fencers enter the direct elimination rounds where victory goes to the first fencer to score 15 touchs.
In fencing a point is scored when a valid touch is made. Because this can happen almost simultaneously a rule was devised for foil and sabre known as right-of-way. When both fencers register a hit in the same phrase the winner of the point is the fencer that the referee determines was on the offensive.
In pe there is no right-of-way rule and whoever touches first gets the point. Both fencers score a point if they hit each other within 1/25th of a second.
ENDS