Müminhan Bilgin in view of boosting efforts for promoting fencing in Turkey: Fencing News
In Istanbul, The President of Turkish Fencing Federation (TFF), Müminhan Bilgin, yesterday, on June 6, put light on the history of fencing in Turkey and suggested that there is a need of recognition for the sport in the country.
He stated that the international sport body, Fédération Internationale d'Escrime (FIE) was founded in 1923 when the Turkish Republic came into being. Therefore, fencing has a long history with the country.
The sport first began to be played in military schools of the country and the federation was set up in 1923.
Turkey was open to take part in the Olympic Games from 1924 to 1980’s until when a limitation of participation from each continent was imposed by the committee.
Since then, the Turkish fencers lacked the quality to make their way into the Olympic Games, which was to qualify among the top-32 and the event was dominated by the European fencers.
Bilgin highlighted the fact that on his joining in January 2007, the sport was lacking a great deal in terms of fame and training. It was during his reign that fencing was recognised throughout the country and frequent sport activities and practices had begun.
He commented, “I was elected as the head of the federation in 2007 when there were only 250 active registered fencers in Turkey and the sport was only practiced in 12 provinces. Turkey was ranked around 170th position in the world. Now around 3,000 registered fencers, half of whom are actively practicing the sport, from nearly 30 provinces take part in fencing and we have ranked as high as 64th since 2007.”
Due to the non-availability of the required number of fencing individuals in Turkey before the year 2007, the fencers easily used to take part in the international competitions after playing just five matches.
The TFF President also emphasised that with the recent developmental projects launched by the federation, the number of fencers will increase that will result in more matches at the national level before taking part in the international competitions.
Tags: