Olympic test events have not even started yet but Rio is already getting into the spirit of the Games. Last weekend, two top fencers, Francesca Boscarelli (Italy) and Yannick Borel (France), took an important step to ensuring they return to the city in 2016. They won gold at the epée fencing Grand Prix which took place at the Army’s Physical Education School in Urca, in Rio’s Southern Zone. The event is the second-most important in the sport’s annual calendar (behind only the World Championship) and points from the competition count towards the individual world rankings of the International Fencing Federation, due to be published in April 2016. Check out here the qualification process for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

The Grand Prix brought together 354 athletes (191 men and 163 women) from 41 countries. It was the eighth stage of the competition, which tests all three fencing disciplines (epée, foil and sabre) – the next and final stage will see athletes compete with the sabre in Moscow, between 29 and 31 May. In April 2016, the Grand Prix will return to Rio, to the Arena Carioca 3 (at the Barra Olympic Park), as an official test event for the Olympic Games (see here the full calendar of test events).

The Army’s Physical Education School will function as the training centre for the Brazilian team during the Rio 2016 Games. In the competition that took place this weekend, Brazil’s best result came from the epée of Rayassa Costa, the only Brazilian to rank among the top 64 – the rest were eliminated in the qualification rounds.

Fencing remains relatively unknown in Brazil, but it is steadily increasing in popularity. Over the weekend of 16 and 17 May, a demonstration event was held at Rio de Janeiro’s Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon. With free entry and under the guidance of Brazil’s top-ranked fencers, the event attracted plenty of interest from local families and children.

Earlier, in March, the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, a gold medallist in the foil at Montreal 1976 – recalled his training as an athlete with some children at a social project in Tijuca, in the city’s Northern Zone.

Rio2016.com is not an absolute authority on qualification for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which is an ongoing process. Final places will only be confirmed in July 2016 (for the Olympic Games) and August 2016 (for the Paralympic Games). The qualification systems are defined by each sport’s respective International Federation and the International Olympic Committee or International Paralympic Committee, and are subject to change. When an athlete or team wins a quota place for their nation, the final decision on whether this ‘slot’ is used and which athletes are sent is taken by the respective National Olympic Committee or National Paralympic Committee (NOC or NPC). Even when athletes win a ‘nominal’ place for themselves, NOCs/NPCs may have to decide who to send if the number of qualified athletes from one country exceeds the quota.

How it works

Fencing has been part of the Olympic programme since Athens 1896. In the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, there are a total of 10 events: Individual epée and team epée (men and women), individual foil (men and women) and team foil (men), individual sabre (men and women) and team sabre (women).

In the epée, the athlete can strike any part of his adversary’s body. In the foil, only the trunk and the throat can be targeted. The sabre event allows fencers to attack above the waist, including the head, with any part of the blade.

A blow on any of the permitted areas of the opponent’s body is worth one point, and the winner is the fencer with the most points at the end of three rounds (each round lasts three minutes) or the first to reach 15 points. In team competitions, three fencers take turns in up to nine contests, with the winning team the first to reach 45 points.