Fencing: 4th National Championship on November 11 and 12

The fourth ‘National Fencing Championships 2015’ organised by the ‘National Association of Fencing Sri Lanka’ (NAFSL) will be held on November 11 and 12 at the Slimline Fencing Club, Kuliyapitiya Road in Pannala, commencing at 8.00am.   The National Association of Fencing initiated the National Fencing Championships in 2012 with the objective of providing a competitive platform, ranking and seeding fencers in Sri Lanka.   There has been a steady growth in the number of participants each year.   The NAFSL took steps to host the 2013 National Championships in Galle, taking the sport to audiences who may not otherwise have access to the sport.   This year also the Nationals will be held Pannala, giving spectators and students in the area a chance to watch championship fencing.   As a novel sport in the country, this is one of NAFSL’s strategies to create awareness of the sport amongst a wider audience.   The 2015 Nationals will comprise 8 medal events as follows: 1. Foil Men – Individual, 2.Foil Women – Individual, 3.Epee Men – Individual, 4. Epee Women – Individual, 5. Sabre Men – Individual, 6. Sabre Women – Individual, 7. Mixed Weapon Men - Team and 8. Mixed Weapon Women – Team. As in the previous years, the format has been fixed in keeping with the international regulations.   The Individual events will be conducted with preliminary pool bouts and the best 8 fencers in each weapon category (foil, epee and sabre) will proceed to the direct elimination round, which will be conducted in a knockout format.   The Championship Trophy will be awarded to the fencing club leading the medal tally of both individual and team events and the ‘Championship Runners-up Trophy’ will be awarded to the fencing club placed second in the medal tally.   The National Association of Fencing, Sri Lanka is the registered governing body of the sport of fencing in the country.   The association is affiliated to the Federation Internationale D’Escrime (FIE), Commonwealth Fencing Federation (CFF), Fencing Confederation of Asia (FCA) and the South Asian Fencing Federation (SAFF).   Established in 2008, NAFSL has already reached great heights for one of the youngest sporting bodies in the country.   NAFSL has nine registered fencing clubs and conducts regular training for approximately 150 fencers in Sri Lanka in the Colombo, Galle, Gampaha, Kandy, Kalutara, Kegalle, and Kurunegala districts.   In 2015 NAFSL extended the reach to several schools in these districts and for the first time organized a Novices Championship in June.   In the year 2010 NAFSL produced the first international medals for the country at the South Asian Fencing Championships held in Chennai, India.   The team representing Sri Lanka received 3 bronze medals in the team categories of Men’s Foil, Men’s Sabre and Women’s Epee.   At the South Asian Fencing Championships in 2012 conducted in Hyderabad India, the Sri Lankan team won 14 medals, including a bronze medal at the women’s individual weapon category for Epee.   Sri Lankan fencers participated at the World Championships 2010 (Paris), 2011 (Catania), 2013 (Budapest) and 2015 (Moscow) as well as numerous Junior and Cadet World Championships, Asian Championships and other competitions.   At the Under 23 years Asian Fencing Championships held in Mongolia in September 2015, Tharindu Madumal qualified for the direct elimination round in the foil event.   This is one of the highest achievements by a Sri Lankan fencer, in a highly competitive event.   In recent years NAFSL has also focused on training technical officials, in refereeing and coaching with the aim of increasing the resources and support services for the sport.   At present there are 10 referees qualified at a local and South Asian level, including 1 FIE certified referee at regional level.   With a stable and focused growth plan for the future, NAFSL aims to include Fencing among the leading medal winning sports in Sri Lanka in the future. The main aim of conducting this tournament is for the development of all aspects of the sport, not only through nurturing champion fencers, but also developing fully qualified coaches and referees, so that our dreams of securing Olympic medals become achievable.   In the past 8 years Fencing has steadily gained in popularity.   This year we are also focusing more on talent searches and developmental aspects by introducing the sport to schools, stated Dian Gomes, President NAFSL.