Senior men's foil selections for Paris and La Coruna

[hokers]

On a slightly more serious note, what happens if/when the places are not confirmed for anyone who has retired?
Do they pick some more, or go with a reduced number?

[riposteinprime]

From selection document - "The remaining places may be filled by fencers, subject to fitness, selected by thePerformance Team. The Performance Team will be responsible for deciding how many of the remaining places are filled"

Certainly the first time I have seen a selection for a senior world cup Epee of someone without any points on the GB senior ranking lists..

Of all the crazy discretionary selection stuff we've seen this year, I'd say this is pretty small beer, perhaps even sensible.

[Ronald Velden]

hokers

I think that the 'sitting director' will be one of those selected who will not be competing unless she changes her mind.

[Vicomte_de_Bragelonne]

Personally I think that these selections are going part way to addressing the numerous selection criticisms over a long time.

There appears to be a clear set of rules and they are being followed.

It's been let down by some ongoing lack of joined up thinking which I think personally will get solved in due course. i.e. the management of the rankings by a number of different people who have no inkling about whose competing or not, other than the fact that they have competed in the rolling 12 month period.

If BF took ownership of the rankings, used some of the new UK Sport money to develop a proper rankings database, (it's relevant to the perfomance programme and totally justifiable IMHO - and as Gav has oft pointed out wouldn't cost a vast sum), and took account of retirals etc in the design - then we would have a clear, transparent, consistent rankings structure. Who knows it may even be the basis of an online results/reporting portal !

[cesh_fencing]

Is it the first time we've selected a sitting Director of BF for an A/GP?

Think Tom Cadman was probably in the same situation..

[cesh_fencing]

There appears to be a clear set of rules and they are being followed.

Rules say top 4/6 plus then discretionary down the line (and maybe no one). They are designed to make it hard for 'out of favour' fencers ranked 5th or below to get a toe in the door.

I have no problems in reality with a fencer with no senior ranking points being selected, especially as they are based abroad (and have done well at U20), however you would have thought that the PD would have made sure any foreign based events the fencer in question had competed in would have been sent to the ranking organiser so it did not look quite so strange...

[Foilling Around]

The selection document leaves no room for wriggle. JW is top of the rankings so he has the right to go. If he chooses not to come out of retirement then that is his right. But that is not the full story.

There has been no contact at all as far as I know with fencers to enquire as to their level of training. This is strange considering that para 43 of the selection document says that people can be excluded if their fitness of training record is not satisfactory.

I presume that JW is not training at all and I know that Lisa Mckenzie is out of action until the spring following a hip operation. This is where the slickness of the operation needs to improve.

Each national coach should have been asking for the training plans for the season from all of the top 20 fencers and asking them if they were interested in selection for the World Cup events. This kind of proactive dialogue is vital, but the systems are not in place.

I suspect that in some weapons where people turn down their selection they will be replaced, but in the case of for example Women's Foil where the total allocation of places has not been filled, then they will travel with reduced numbers.

[Peter Pan]

Think Tom Cadman was probably in the same situation..

Libby Payne as well, I think

[JohnL]

I presume that JW is not training at all and I know that Lisa Mckenzie is out of action until the spring following a hip operation. This is where the slickness of the operation needs to improve.

Each national coach should have been asking for the training plans for the season from all of the top 20 fencers and asking them if they were interested in selection for the World Cup events. This kind of proactive dialogue is vital, but the systems are not in place.

Paul

Not being funny, but that is organization 101 !!!!

By now (The beginning of the international fencing calender for Seniors) I would have expected both the PD and senior weapon coach to have discussed a short, medium, long term plan for the squads, have explained it to the BF directors, checked with the fencers to ensure commitment, and have had a PLAN upon which selection for tournaments could be based.

As well as having a plan, it's important that the fencers involved know that there's a plan, knows what it is, and can have a reasonable dialogue with the people implimenting the plan.

Having it anounced on the BF web site that an old retired guy and an out of commision woman have been selected doesn't exactly engender confidence.