Great Britain has eight fencers for 2012 London Olympics
The Great Britain fencing team will represent the sport with at least eight players at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
These places have been earned in account of being the host nation. The British Olympic Association (BOA) declared that these seeds have been awarded via the host nation qualification route.
This means that the host fencers will get an opportunity to present the Great Britain with a total of 16 places. The rest of the eight spots will be earned through the Olympic qualifier rounds.
This grant was given by the panel of Olympic qualifying standards that has helped the sport to gain importance in Britain.
According to the BOA Chief Executive, also known as the head of Great Britain’s (GB) fencing team, Andy Hunt, the recent years have proven to be very progressive in terms of performances of the British fencers.
Hunt told that the GB team was represented by three fencers in the last Olympic Games that won 13 World Cup medals and secured four top places in the European Championship, including the first team medal for 30 years with a bronze in Men’s Foil at
the 2010 European Championship.
"The host nation qualification places will give British fencers a great opportunity to demonstrate the dynamic and exciting nature of the sport and I'm sure our fencers will be inspired by the support of the home crowd in London," added Hunt.
Andy Hunt further emphasised that being able to automatically qualify eight more fencers into the 2012 London Olympics, it will provide more encouragement to the fencers to get trained and compete at the international level. The GB team will be the
largest group of fencers to appear in the 2012 London Olympics.
Moreover, the Chief Executive of British Fencing, Piers Martin, paid regards and was thankful to BOA for the good news. He dedicated this achievement to the British fencers giving great performances worldwide and to their support staff who guided them
to make such accomplishments over the last years.
“With the support we get from public and private funding, the results are now coming at all levels, showing that we also have strength in depth. It is clear that our performance path is on an upward trajectory. We can now use this Olympic Games not
only for medal success but as a platform for future Games," continued Martin.
On this happy occasion, Clive Woodward, who is the BOA Director of Sports as well as the GB Deputy Chief, remarked that competing on home soil will allow the British fencing to capture the spotlight that will be rewarding for the future. It will help
develop the sport with new players of various groups from all over the United Kingdom.
Woodward added that these qualification places may significantly benefit the sport by allowing some new fencers to step up to avail this opportunity of a lifetime. Moreover, they may bring back home the potential to win the 2016 Olympics medals after
experiencing the 2012 Olympics competitive environment.
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