INTRODUCTION
FENCING is an organised sport involving the use of swords-Epee, Foil and Sabre-for attack and defence according to set movements and rules. Although the use of swords dates to prehistoric times and sword-play to ancient civilizations, the organized sport of FENCING began only at the end of the 19th century. FENCING has been an Olympic Discipline since the modern Olympic Games held in Athens in 1896. The International Fencing Federation (Federation Internationale d'Escrime) was founded on 29.11.1913 at Paris (France). 113 countries are presently affiliated to the FIE. India is one of them. Commonwealth Fencing Federation was founded in 1950. All the members of Commonwealth nations are members of the CFF. Asian Fencing Confederation was invigorated with its revised constitution in 1991 and since then they were holding competitions in senior and junior sections in the Asian region.
The technical rules of the F.I.E. for conduct of competitions in Fencing were codified in June 1914 at Paris and issued in 1919 with the title of Rules for Competitions.
The Rules for Epee, Foil and Sabre, the three events, both for men/boys and women/girls were adopted on 12th June 1914.
The Rules governing epee, foil and sabre competitions, judged with the electrical judging apparatus, were adopted in 1936, 1957 and 1988 respectively.
The first Senior World Championship was conducted in 1900 at Paris, the Junior in 1950 at Nice and the Cadet in 1987 at Tel-Aviv. Since then these competitions are being held regularly at different venues under the aegis of the F.I.E.
113 countries are presently affiliated to the F.I.E. India is one of them. Mr.Rene Roch (France) is the President and Mr.Mario Favia (Italy) is the Secretary General of the F.I.E.
The last World Championship for senior was held at Havana (Cuba) in 2003 and the next World Championship is due to be organized at Leipzig (Germany) in 2005 and the 2006 World Championship will be held at Turin (Italy). The last World Junior and Cadet Championship was held at Trapani (Italy) in 2003, the 2004 Championship will be held at Plovdiv (Bulgaria) and the next Tournament will be held at Linz (Austria) in 2005.
Commonwealth Fencing Federation was founded in 1950 and Fencing abinitio was a part of the Commonwealth Games since then. But in 1970 during the Commonwealth Games held at Edinburgh, it was decided to organize Commonwealth Championship independently and thus the first independent Championship was organized at Ottawa (Canada) in 1974. Since then the Championship is conducted separately in the same year in which the Commonwealth Games are also conducted.
Most of the Members of the Commonwealth nations are members of the C.F.F. India is one of them. We got affiliated with the C.F.F.only in 2001 and participated in the last Commonwealth Championship held at New Castle (Australia) in 2002. The next Championship is scheduled to take place in Northern Ireland in 2006. Ms.Helen Smith (Australia) is the President and Mr.Bob Hemery is the Hony.Secretary/Treasurer of the C.F.F.
Asian Fencing Confederation was invigorated with its revised constitution in 1991 and since then they had holding fencing competitions at the asian region both in senior and junior sections. The last Asian Fencing Championship for seniors was held in October 2003 at Chlengma (Thailand) where Indian Fencing Team had also participated, which was their second appearance in the Asian scene, the earlier edition had been at Bangkok in 2001 where our team made their maiden international competition only from the dawn of the current century. It is hoped that the Indian team will participate in the forthcoming Asian Senior Championship scheduled to be held at Manila (Philippines) in April 2006.