More than 400 athletes from 50 countries participate at the FIE World Cup in Kazan

Today, the FIE World Cup in Men’s and Women’s Epee kicked off in the capital of Tatarstan. The competition, which will last until March 23, is attended by about 400 athletes from more than 50 countries. Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of the capital of Tatarstan, visited the competition venue at the Kazan Expo Exhibition Center on the opening day of the large-scale tournament. He watched the performances of the epee fencers, and also discussed the development perspective of this sport with the Technical Director of the International Fencing Federation Yevgeny Tsukhlo and Tatarstan Minister of Sports Vladimir Leonov.

During the meeting with Yevgeny Tsukhlo and Vladimir Leonov, I.Metshin outlined that all outstanding athletes began their careers with regular training sessions in the sections, so it is important to pay attention to the quality of training in children's sports schools.

The Mayor of Kazan got acquainted with the new conditions of the tournament in connection with the coronavirus pandemic. As explained by the organizers, all participants of the competition can enter the Kazan Expo after testing for coronavirus infection, made no earlier than three days before arrival in Kazan. Upon arrival in the capital of Tatarstan, the athletes passed another PCR- test for COVID. At the entrance to the Kazan Expo Exhibition Center, all participants of the sports event must undergo temperature screening, besides, the mask mode and social distance are observed. No spectators and fans are allowed to the competition venue. Online broadcast is available on the website. I.Metshin noted the importance of observance of the sanitary and epidemiological measures.

The FIE World Cup in Men's and Women's Epee is held in individual and team competitions. The tournament is refereed by 109 judges, including 27 international and 82 national categories of referees. 83 volunteers provide assistance in organizing the tournament.

About 400 athletes from more than 50 countries are competing, this tournament will be one of the qualifying competitions for the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Russia is represented by the best athletes of the country: the world ranking leader, silver medalist of the 2019 World Cup Sergei Bida; his teammates, who won the team tournament at the European Cups three times in a row, from 2017 to 2019, winners of the Russian, European and World Cups in the individual championship Pavel Sukhov, Sergei Khodos, Nikita Glazkov; world champion in the individual championship 2017 Tatyana Gudkova, world champions in teams Lyubov Shutova and Tatyana Andryushina.

On March 19 and 20, preliminary competitions are held. The main competitions of the World Cup will be held from March 21 to 23. The winners of the tournament will be determined these days. A total of 32 sets of medals will be awarded at the tournament.

Kazan has hosted fencing competitions before. In 2013, fencing was included in the program of the Universiade 2013, a year later the Kazan Tennis Academy hosted the FIE World Cup, and in 2019, the Russian Fencing Championship U17 was held at the Kazan Boxing and Table Tennis Center.