Fencing Test Event Shows Venue Games Ready

(ATR) The Rio 2016 fencing test event features a fully completed venue and field of play set up, a rarity among test events.

The International Fencing Federation (FIE) is holding its world championships in two disciplines in Rio de Janeiro from April 23-27. To prepare Carioca Arena 3 for the event, a full competition platform needed to be constructed. The platform, featuring a design unique to international fencing competitions, will remain intact until the Games open in August.

Since fencing will be held in a sporting arena, organizers designed the four competition platforms to be arranged in an "x" formation to ensure all spectators will have a view of the events. In the center of the "x" a main platform was constructed for the competition finals.

FIE Sporting Director Krisztian Kulcsar tells Around the Rings only "minor facelifts," will be required by the organizing committee during the final four months to prepare the venue. A fully completed venue is unique for most of the test events in the lead up to Rio 2016. Last week, gymnastics held an Olympic qualifying tournament in the completed Rio Arena, but without the full necessary flooring and with power outages during competition. Other test events have used bare-bones setups.

"Certainly we are not going to complain because our venue is 100 percent ready with purpose and it is excellent," Kulcsar said to ATR. "The cooperation with Rio 2016 was excellent, and what I expect for the remaining few months. We are testing everything. We are not just testing the venue and field of play, but all technology all the apparatuses."

Kulcsar said that small adjustments such as heights of certain podiums, and the colors needed to fulfill the look of the games, will be a few of the minor details that need resolving. He added that the competition platform looks "excellent for spectators," from all sections of the arena and will serve as a model for fencing competitions in similar venues.

Athletes competing in Rio for the world championships tell ATR that they enjoy the setup and the arena temperature is perfect. When Carioca Arena 3 was originally inaugurated the air conditioning was yet to be installed, as was the competition floor.

"I think the platform is good, the ventilation is good, and everything is going to be okay for the big day," Josephine Jacques-Andre-Coquin, a competitor from France, said to ATR. "It is good to fence here before the Olympics, but in the training room it is very hot, so maybe for the Olympic Games it will be better."

Irina Embrich, from Estonia, agreed that the training area needed more air conditioning, but told ATR "the main hall is very beautiful."

"It is very good to try and see how the venue is and how matches feel," Embrich added. "We can’t move free so it is a little difficult in competition you have a lot of space, but for the Olympics I think it is necessary so you have to do it."

Written by Aaron Bauer in Rio de Janeiro

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