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About Challenge Bernadotte

Challenge Bernadotte attracts the world's best men's épée fencers to Stockholm once a year. The 2010 edition of the competition took place on 5-7 March.

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How sharp are the Swedish blades? – Twelve native epee fencers go up against the very best in the world.

PRESS RELEASE 2010-03-01 -- On March 5-7, it is time for this year‘s Challenge Bernadotte / Stockholm Grand Prix with close to 190 of the world‘s best male epee fencers, including all top 32 on the global ranking list. Against these stand at least 12 of the best Swedish fencers. "The opposition is very strong and we should not expect miracles. But the Swedish squad is young and hungry and there are possibilities that someone may rise to the occasion and surprise positively", says Igor Tsikinjov, captain of the Swedish epee team.

(Svensk version i PDF-format.)

Challenge Bernadotte is one of only three competitions during this season with a Grand Prix status, which among other things means double world cup points. This, together with the competition’s popularity among the world’s epee fencers, is resulting in the strongest possible rooster. It is actually a tougher competition than the Word Championship and Olympic Games, where the number of participants per nation is limited to make room for weaker nations to compete.

The Swedes who have qualified and/or been chosen by the captain this year are:

1. Tor Forsse FFF (Föreningen för Fäktkonstens Främjande, Stockholm)

2. Adam Larsson GFK (Göteborgs Fäktklubb, Gothenburg)

3. Carl Frisell DIF (Djurgården Fäktning, Stockholm)

4. Robin Kase DIF

5. Christian Gustavsson FFF

6. Philip von Platen KF99 (Kungsbacka Fäktklubb 1999)

7. Victor von Platen KF99

8. Vincent Alston FFF

9. Joar Sundman FFF

10. Philip Karlsson FKC (Fäktklubben Chapman, Karlskrona)

11. Anton Samuelsson GFK

12. Andreas Jönsson GFK

The host nation are allowed 12 entries plus as many as are required to make even poules of 7 – but maximized to 18. So probably the Swedish squad will be amended with the following fencers:

- Jan Tivenius FFF

- Martin Danielson SAF (Stockholms Allmänna Fäktförening)

- C-H Wendt FFF

Swedish epee fencing have a glorious history with the Olympic gold medal for teams in Montréal 1976 (Rolf Edling, Göran Flodström, Leif Högström, Hans Jacobsson and Carl von Essen) and Johan Harmensberg’s individual gold medal in Moscow 1980 as the top highlights. Sweden also had successes in the 1990s with Peter Vanky’s two world championship silver medals worth noting.

Captain Igor Tsikinjov – just back from a training camp with the elite Swedish epee fencers – is cautious when estimating the chances for the Swedes. “We are in a period of building a team for the future and many competing this weekend are juniors with great potential but who may have a tough time in this crowd, which is as strong as it gets.”

”Robin Kase from Djurgården, only 17 years old but has qualified to Challenge Bernadotte totally on his own merits, has great talent and the potential to grow enormously in the coming years. Adam Larson from Gothenburg came in at a very strong 19th place at the large international tournament in Berlin a few weeks ago. And Tor Forsse won SAF-pokalen here in Stockholm in February”, says Igor Tsikinjov while he at the same time stresses that he see no specific favorite among the Swedish fencers.

For the world cup teams competition on Sunday, the captain has nominated Tor Forsse, Adam Larsson, Carl Frisell, Robin Kase and Joar Sundman. The final team of four fencers will be decided on Saturday, based on the performance thus far on the piste.

In last year’s Challenge Bernadotte, the Swedish team started off very strong by defeating the 8th ranked South Korea, which was quite an achievement. After that, the Swedes unfortunately found most of the opposition to strong and ended up in 15th place.

Building a strong national team is a long term endeavor, stresses Igor Tsikinjov and points to the necessary building blocks; ”You have to have fencers who are prepared to sacrifice and really willing to go for it, with endurance and a long term view. You have to have coaches with sufficient competence and who are really committed to bring fencers to the top. And of course you need to have sufficient financial resources to allow fencers, coaches and other staff to build long term.” Finally, Igor points out what is the most important factor for success – to practice hard! ”If you want to be as good as the best, you need to practice leg-work, technique and tactics at least as hard as the best. And among the top ranked fencers, it is not uncommon to practice 8-9 sessions per week, in total over 20 hours …”.

For further information, please contact:

Peter Ejemyr

ejemyr@fencing.se

+46 733-611000

Pierre Thullberg

pierre@fencing.se

+46 706-831883

Background:

On March 5-7, the very best men’s epee fencers convene in Stockholm, Sweden to compete for the 2010 Challenge Bernadotte / Stockholm Grand Prix. The current world number one ranked fencer, Gauthier Grumier from France will be there as will the reigning world- and Olympic champions Anton Adeev, Russia, and Matteo Tagliariol, Italy, spearheading what is most likely the strongest rooster ever in men’s epee.

Since its initiation in 2004 the competition has each year had full participation from the highest ranked fencers. With the final entries now coming in, this year’s event is gearing up to be at least as strong as previous years and in total attract close to 190fencers. On Friday, March 5, the fencers start off with a round of poules (round-robin in groups of 7 fencers) which determine who will qualify for Saturdays tableau of 64. From there, the fencers fight in direct elimination matches first to 15 hits and where each match is for advancement or elimination. The 16 highest ranked fencers are directly qualified for the fencing on Saturday. At 4.30pm (CET) the semifinals start and the best four fencers fight for the trophy.

The venue for the competition is Eriksdalshallen, on Ringvägen 70, Södermalm, Stockholm.

Schedule

For the competition schedule, please go to http://www.challengebernadotte.org/programme/

Streaming video live and results in real time

At the Challenge Bernadotte website– www.challengebernadotte.org – information will continuously be published ahead of and during the competition. New this year is that streaming video will be available from four pistes. This means that several of the poules and all matches from the round of 64 will be possible to watch live. The results will also be available in real time, hit-by-hit. These services can be accessed from www.challengebernadotte.org.

Press images are available free of charge

History

The history of this competition goes back to ’Bernadottepokalen’, which started in 1977 and was from the beginning a ranking tournament for the men’s epee world championship. The competition was set up by the club Djurgården Fencing and its name was set to honor the club president during this entire period, Count Oscar Bernadotte af Wisborg. His Majesty Carl Gustaf, King of Sweden in 1999 donated the challenges price made in silver on a base of cherry wood from the Drottningholm Royal Gardens.

Resources:

Competition website:

www.challengebernadotte.org

(with links to live video and real time results)

What time is it in Stockholm?

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=239

Press material including images:

http://www.challengebernadotte.org/press_577/

Continuous news in blog format:

http://www.challengebernadotte.org/blog/

Video from Challenge Bernadotte 2007-2009:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ChallengeBernadotte