127 male and female players from 14 countries competing in four different competitions

DUBAI: More than 125 fencers from across the world will participate over the next three days in the fencing championship at the 11th Nad Al Sheba Sports Tournament at the main hall of the Nad Al Sheba Sports Complex.

With exactly 127 champion fencers from 14 countries all set to participate in the eleventh edition of these annual championships, the stage will be set to decide who will emerge as champion fencers in various categories.

The NAS Sports Tournament is the largest sports event of its kind held during the holy month of Ramadan at the Nad Al Sheba Sports Complex. The mega event that is conducted each year under the slogan ‘Limitless Possibilities,’ will continue until March 31. This year’s event has the inclusion of nine sports, including volleyball, padel, jiu-jitsu, fencing, wheelchair basketball, running race, cycling race, tug-of-war and obstacle challenge.

Most of the top fencers from 14 nations, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Hungary, Estonia, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Iran, Tunisia, Iraq and the UAE will compete in four categories, namely epee and foil for international men, sabre for Arab men and an epee competition exclusively for girls and women born in the UAE.

The competition will be judged as per the latest laws adopted by the FIE (the governing body for fencing, International Fencing Federation). All players will be classified according to the FIE rules. Fencers from the UAE who do not have an international classification will be classified according to the rules of the UAE Fencing Federation.

The competition will be held in two stages. The first stage will see all fencers play each other in a single round after all are placed in a descending order. At the end of this stage, all fencers will be classified as per number of wins, the difference in touches and the touches recorded in sequence.

In the event of two players staying equal in ranking, a play-off match will be held between them to decide on the one to advance. At the end of these qualifiers, a match will be held to determine third and fourth places, followed by the final between the top-two finishers to decide on the champion.

The epee competitions for international men and UAE fencers will be held from 7:30 pm tonight (Tuesday), and continue till 11:30 pm. The sabre competition for Arab fencers will commence from 7:30 pm on Wednesday and the finals will take place from 8:30 to 10:30 pm, on Thursday (March 14).

Ali Al Marzouqi, the Executive Director of the UAE Fencing Federation, stressed the great development that the game has witnessed at the technical and administrative levels in the recent past. This development, in return, has resulted in the expansion of the participant base since its inclusion as a sporting discipline at the NAS Sports Tournament.

“The Nad Al Sheba Sports Tournament has become the forefront of the fencing federation’s local sporting events agenda, due to its artistic, media and public impact at the level of all sports. Therefore, the board of directors from the fencing federation’s is giving this sport greater attention so that our local fencers can have this opportunity to battle against some of the best from the world of fencing,” Al Marzouqi said in a statement.

The Executive Director of the UAE Fencing Federation confirmed that the Nad Al Sheba Sports Tournament has gained a great reputation for itself among all local athletes and administrators in sports federations thanks to the directives, support and care of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Executive Council.

“This is an exceptional event that everyone awaits, not just because of the financial rewards, but also due to the lofty standards of competition. The tournament has become a value for happiness and contributes to stimulating positive energy among all members of society, as it is full of many sporting and humanitarian milestones that deserve to be observed and documented, especially at this time of the year,” Al Marzouqi stressed.

He further added that this year’s fencing competitions stand out in more ways than one, simply because this event is being held by itself, unlike the previous two years when this competition had got the distinction of being a round of the FIE World Cup.

“But we had requests coming in from international fencers from across the world as they wanted to have a strong competition at this time of year to test themselves. And by the time we closed registration on Monday night, we had the champion fencers from Egypt, Hungary and Iran confirming their participation in the tournament. We are thrilled with this prospect as such a strong line-up can only contribute to enhancing the success of our tournament, while providing a strong exposure for our fencers with different international schools,” Al Marzouqi explained.

Al Marzouqi related that the fencing competition at the NAS Sports Tournament will act as the apt preparation for the UAE youth team that is scheduled to participate in the FIE World Cup in Saudi Arabia immediately after Eid-Al-Fitr.

Also commencing this week will be the Obstacle Challenge that will be held inside the Nad Al Sheba Sports Complex from March 14 (Thursday), and continuing till March 21.

The road running race will be held at the Meydan track over two distances – 5km and 10km with both runs scheduled for March 16 (Saturday). Next will be the Jiu-Jitsu competition that will be held on March 17 and 18, while the Wheelchair Basketball will be worked out from March 20 to 28.

The cycling race will be held on March 22 and 23, while the Volleyball tournament will commence on March 22 and continue till March 31. The tug-of-war contest will also begin on March 24 and continue till March 29.