Veteran Fencing in Europe

 

Dear Friends,

 

I want to present something completely different to what we listened to all morning. And I hope you give some thoughts to this subject within your federations in case you have not yet done this so far.

 

I will also put my short speech with some statistics on the website of our confederation. This might encourage you to appoint a responsible person in your federation to follow-up on this matter. 

 

This Forum gives me an opportunity to introduce to you the veterans commission of the EFC/CEE.

After the last election of our confederation the Executive Committee appointed me as head of this commission and we agreed to have 4 more members on this commission:

 

Mr. Göran Abrahamson (SWE)

Mr. Alain Garnier (FRA)

Mr. Dimitris Kontos (GRE)

Mr. Jozsef Meszaros (HUN).

 

This commission has met officially in Limoges, Bourges and Kopenhagen during this time and has discussed various matters of veterans fencing.

 

Some interesting facts from my records:

Veterans fencing started in the early 70s in Germany on the proposal of their former president Otto Adam. And it took nearly 20 more years before these activities started to become international. 1990 teams of Great Britain and Germany met in both countries to fence against each other.

 

In 1991 the 1st European Veterans Fencing Championships were organised in the English city of Loughborough. 7 countries with a total of 111 fencers participated (BEL, FRA, GER, GBR, NOR, ITA and SUI). And during this championship also the European Veterans Fencing Committee was established. Chairman became Henry de Silva (GBR), and president Laki Dobridis (GER). The rules for competitions were set with age groups 40+, 50+ and 60+ for both sexes.  It was also decided that team and individual competitions should be held on alternate years. And this is still happening until today. The last individual championships were organised 2003 in Moscow, the teams 2004 in Bergamo, where 48 teams celebrated the 7th edition of this event. And it can be said that European Veterans dominate the world championships.

 

 

 

The EFC Veterans Commission brought up a question, which was discussed many years ago already by the COMEX: why we do not include the veterans in our European programme, as they use the title European Championships which actually belongs to the EFC/CEE? So far the COMEX has agreed, after several discussions, to leave the European veterans alone, as long as they are doing their work without demanding financial support of any kind. Certainly the European title is claimed by the EFC and so far only granted in a generous way to the veterans and can be taken away at any time.

 

In many European countries veteran fencing has become an important role to their national fencing  federations. But there are still a lot of federations who have not yet realized the importance of veterans. May I recall some of the benefits in order to encourage those nations: fencers come back to their clubs and take positions like president or treasurer, pay membership fees,  help the clubs to find sponsors; they are good training partners, can give lessons to younger fencers, go with them to competitions as coach and can help as referees.    

 

Another important point to mention here is the existance of an EUROPEAN MASTERS GAMES ASSOCIATION (EMSA). During a discussion with the president of the International Masters Games Association (IMGA), Mr. Kai Holm, at the occasion of this year’s European Championships in Kopenhagen, we were informed about this body, which we can join to participate in their Masters Games.   

 

During the General Assembly of the European Veterans Committee in Bergamo I have informed their members that there must be a slow movement towards a unification of both organisations in the future. So far the EVFC has already organisers for the next few years. This we have to accept and start to enter into

discussion with them how to approach this matter in a mutual understanding. It certainly means also that we have to find a solution to organise those championships in a regulated way, because right now they are open and we had at the championships in Cologne 2001 nearly 600 participants! 

The chairman and president of the EVFC should discuss this with the veterans commission of the EFC in the near future.

 

To get to the end, I want to quote a EVFC word:

 “The European Veterans Fencing Committee encourages and facilitates the development of competitive veteran fencing in Europe and aims to achieve recognition and respect for the sport of veteran fencing within both the fencing community and the wider world including other veteran sports.”   

 

Let me add one more point: The problem of arbitrage for veterans competitions.

Mr. René Roch was present at this year’s world championships in Krems, Austria. He is not against the proposition to accept referees over 60 years, who cannot anymore  work at world cups, Grand Prix and other championships – but we can use them still at veterans events.

 

And my last word to you all is: help to develop veterans fencing in your federation – give them a chance and support them!      

 

Max Geuter

Chairman of EFC/CEE Veterans Commission