Introduction

The Good Luck Beijing 2008 FIE World Championships will be held at the Fencing Hall of National Convention Centre from April 18 - 20, 2008. The Championships consist of three competitions:

•Men’s Foil Team

•Women’s Epee Team and

•Men’s Foil Individual

The former two also fall into the category of World Championships.

More than 120 fencers from 19 countries and regions will participate in the event with 29 domestic technical officers and 20 foreign technical officers will attend the competitions. Competing fencers will be from France, Germany, China, Russia, Italia, Spain, Romania, Poland, Canada, U.S.A., Ukraine, Japan, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Brazil, Hungry, Estonia, U.K. and Sweden. The participation of world top-class teams is a hallmark of this event. IFE World Championships have always been one of the top-class events in the fencing world and this time, the championships have attracted world class fencers and teams including world’s top eight men’s foil teams; 14 women’s epee teams and 15 male foil fencers ranked on the list of world’s top 16.

For this event, 127 paid staff and 680 volunteers, including eight key volunteers from Jiangxi Province make up the venue team for this championship event.

About The Fencing Hall

The Fencing hall is located at the south side of the 270,000-sqm National Convention Centre, spanning an area of 56,000 sqm. Olympic fencing as well as the shooting and fencing disciplines of the Modern Pentathlon will be held here during the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. In addition, the facility will host the Paralympic Boccia and Wheelchair Fencing events. It is adjacent to the International Broadcasting Centre (IBC) in the north, and the Main Press Centre (MPC) in northwest. The first floor of the Fencing Hall covers an area of 4,800 sqm. The hall roof spans 60 meters and is made of heavy steel. Large-scale banquet, medium-sized conference and art performances are slated for the hall after the Games.

During the Olympic fencing event, it is used as a 14-piste fencing training area.

Some 12 pistes have been installed on the north side of the Hall’s third floor. During the Olympic Games, six pistes will be used for pre-warm-up and the other six for warm-up. For the purpose of this Championship, six pistes will be used for training and warm-up, while the other six for the competitions. In addition, the third floor is also equipped with toilets, changing rooms, athletes' lounge and shower rooms.

The Competition Hall is on the fourth floor and covers an area of 6,400 sqm with capacity for 4,001 spectators. The roof of this Hall spans 81 meters and is made of steel. The hall will be converted into a large conference facility following the Olympic Games and will be equipped with professional stage, advance lighting, AV, and simultaneous interpreting systems as well as movable chairs and mobile partitions to facilitate large activities such as conferences, banquets and exhibitions.

Construction of National Convention Centre began April 28, 2005 and will be ready for delivery soon.

Team China Fencing Team

•Men’s foil: Lei Sheng; Zhu Jun; Zhang Liangliang; Huang Liangcai (attending both team and individual competitions); Mao Linqun; Li Bingwei; Li Hua; Bao Xiaoqing; Ma Jianfei; Li Haifeng; Tao Jiale; Zhou Zhile; Zhang Jinyu (for men’s individual only) - 13 fencers in total.

•Women’s epee: Li Na; Zhong Weiping; Zhang Li; Luo Xiaojuan (for team competition only) - four fencers in total.

Of the above fencers preparing for the upcoming Olympic Games, Lei Sheng, Zhu Jun, Li Na and Zhong Weiping are already qualified for the Olympics.

Li Nan is a two-time Olympian, having competed in previous Olympic Games (2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens). The average age of Team China’s men’s foil team is 24.5 and that of Tram China’s women’s epee is 26.5.