Ukraine risks missing all individual women’s starts and men’s épée
The president Fencing Federation of Ukraine Mikhail Ilyashev said that national team of Ukraine will take part in fencing world championship 2023 in those disciplines where there will be no Russians and Belarusians.
“Nothing has changed for us, our delegation will take part in the World Championship. And where athletes from Russia and Belarus will compete, Ukrainian fencers will not participate.”
“I plan to go to the World Championships and meet with the Acting President of the International Fencing Federation (FIE), I want to talk with him about the inadmissibility of the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes. In addition, we made statements about the exclusion of Russia from the membership of the FIE due to a violation of the charter.”
“We have already agreed to suspend the membership of the Russian Federation and Belarus in the European Fencing Confederation, although a year ago they did not support such a decision. The only problem is that there are so-called “paper” federations in fencing by FIE members, there are quite a lot of them, dozens. These are federations of athletes that no one has ever seen in competition. And it is clear that it is difficult to talk with them about some kind of voting.”
“There is an order from the Ministry of Sports in the context of the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers. We, as a national federation, are bound by these decisions; for all these competitions, the trip of athletes goes through the ministry. There is an understanding there that athletes should not shake hands with Russians and Belarusians. And in fencing, shaking hands after the end of the fight is a must, there is no choice.”
“We will be in all team competitions. In the individual ones, where there will be Russians and Belarusians, we will not be. Where there are none, we will participate. And the question will be decided immediately before the start. Because sometimes there were situations when applications were submitted, but the athletes did not appear. If the Russians and Belarusians do not physically appear, we will perform. Several other countries have taken the same stance.”
“But if this is done defiantly during the competition, then this entails punishment for both the athlete and the federation. And the disqualification of an athlete will also apply to team competitions. So at least the command ones remain as the worst-case scenario. In the case of a black card, you are gone after two days because you are disqualified.”
“It is already clear that the Russians do not get to the Olympics in fencing, even under sports conditions, because no one will be able to qualify. But they say that we do not get. They have appeared in some individual competitions. Moreover, they deliberately declared such young athletes who have no chance. The goal was to bury our chances of qualifying.”
Note that Russian and Belarusian athletes are not allowed to participate in all team competitions. At the same time, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus announced athletes in all individual women’s disciplines and the men’s sword. Representatives of Ukraine are at risk of missing these competitions.
The 2023 World Cup will take place in Milan from 22 to 25 July. At the competition, points will be played for the world ranking, according to which licenses for the 2024 Olympics will be determined.
Source: Sportarena
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