Foil Elite in Cuba

From March 11 to 13, Havana will again host the Foil Grand Prix, attended by many of the athletes already qualified for the Olympic Games Rio 2016.

Although the registration for the event has not closed, the official website of the International Fencing Federation (FIE) announced, that at the moment, it will be attended by some 262 elite fencers, of them 118 are women and 144 are men.

On the Friday morning, 11th, the ladies will start the Grand Prix in qualifying and preliminary round pools in the Gerardo Abreu Fontan Social Circle,. The next day, also in the Fontan, men the will be in action.

On Saturday and Sunday the competitions for medals are transferred to the now usual PABEXPO Fairground. The organizers expect the direct elimination rounds to begin at 9:00 a.m. and the final battles to be conducted at 5:00 p.m.

The first to compete for the title will be the ladies on Saturday, and the next day, the men.

For the Cuban athletes this is a highly anticipated occasion to see the aces of the foil world and to have the necessary international exposure time.

On the entry list for the Grand Prix of Havana 2016 appear all the medallists from last year.

On that occasion, in the halls of PABEXPO, the Italian Elisa Di Francisca, double Olympic champion in London 2012 (individual and team), beat the Russian Inna Deriglazova by 15 touches to 5. On that occasion, Korean Hee Sook Jeon and French woman Ysaora Tribus ended up with bronze medals.

Translated by ESTI