2.6 General Qualifying Information

2.6.1 Division Qualifiers

Division qualifiers are competitions in which a specified number of fencers, based on their results, qualify to the USA Fencing National Championships and the Junior Olympic Championships.

Division qualifiers are restricted to members of the division for the following events: Div II, Div III and Y14 (USA Fencing National Championships) and Cadet and Junior (JOs). Veteran fencers can qualify for USA Fencing National Championships via Division II or Division III division qualifiers. Division qualifying tournaments cannot be mixed gender competitions. Fencers who have earned national points are the only athletes who will be skipped over. Athletes who have already qualified via a regional path will not be skipped over at any division qualifier.

Fencers must be U.S. citizens or Permanent Residents. Any fencer who is a U.S. citizen who has also represented another country in the last three years, in any FIE and/or Union International de Pentathlon Monderne (UIPM) event, and who has not yet been granted permission to represent the USA by USA Fencing and the FIE, is not eligible for any USA Fencing National Championship competition, individual or team, including division qualifying competitions. A foreign fencer who is in the United States on a visa is NOT eligible to fence in any National Championships, individual or team, or associated division qualifying competitions. Divisions allowing ineligible athletes to compete in qualifying competitions may be fined by USA Fencing – a $500 fine, which may be invoiced or withheld from the division’s membership rebate.

Athletes that have represented another country in the last three years at FIE level competitions (Senior/Junior and those athletes that represented another country at the Cadet World Championships) are not eligible to compete in a National Championship.

For information regarding your division qualifier schedule, check your division’s website or contact your division officers. To obtain names, emails and phone numbers for any of the division’s officers, contact the National Office by phone (719-866-4511) or email (information@usafencing.org).

Policy on ineligible fencers in division qualifiers:

For division qualifying events in which any ineligible fencers are discovered (i.e., age, classification, membership, citizenship or representing country), the division and athlete(s) in question will be notified and instructed of the information needed to resolve the situation. Any missing membership forms, fees or paperwork needed to resolve the issue must be received by the National Office within 10 business days from the time of notification of the problem by the National Office. Late submission may result in the division qualifiers being recalculated based on the eligible fencers in the competitive field.
No qualification or classifications will be awarded to fencers who compete in division qualifiers where ineligible athletes (i.e., age, classification, membership, citizenship or representing country) are allowed to compete until the situation is resolved.
All entries for the given Championship will remain “registered” until the issues regarding the division qualifier in question are resolved.
Petitions or protests will be reviewed after the situation is resolved.

2.6.2 Regional Qualifying Paths

In addition to division qualifiers, multiple qualification paths exist on a regional level for qualification to the USA Fencing National Championships, Junior Olympic Fencing Championships and the July Challenge. These include:

Regional Open Circuit Tournaments (ROC): Division IA, Division II, Veteran for USA Fencing National Championships
Regional Junior Cadet Circuit (RJCC): Junior and Cadet for Junior Olympic Fencing Championships and the July Challenge, if age eligible
Super Junior/Cadet Circuit Tournament (SJCC): Junior and Cadet for the Junior Olympics and the July Challenge
Super Youth Circuit Tournaments (SYC): Youth 10, Youth 12 for March North American Cup and USA Fencing National Championships; Youth 14 for USA Fencing National Championships
Regional Youth Circuit Tournaments (RYC): Youth 10, Youth 12 for March North American Cup and USA Fencing National Championships; Youth 14 for USA Fencing National Championships
International Regional Circuit Tournament (IRC): Junior and Cadet for the July Challenge. For Y10, Y12 and Y14, attending this international tournament satisfies the prerequisite for the March Youth NAC.

ROC, RJCC, SYC, SJCC and division qualifying tournaments cannot be mixed (mixed gender or mixed age) competitions. RYC qualifying tournaments with less than five entrants in a given gender may mix by gender, but may not mix ages.

Regional Open Circuit (ROC): Open to current USA Fencing members, with a competitive type membership are eligible to fence in open/senior competitions and to foreign fencers with a current ICL (International Competitive License) or that chose to pay the International Admin fee for region only tournaments. Foreign fencers are not eligible to compete in USA Fencing National Championship events. Foreign fencers will be required to create a profile in the USA Fencing database prior to competing in any sanctioned tournament.

Regional Junior/Cadet Circuit (RJCC): Open to current USA Fencing members with a competitive type membership are eligible to fence in Cadet and/or Junior competitions and to age-eligible foreign fencers with a current ICL (International Competitive License) or that chose to pay the International Admin fee for region only tournaments. Foreign fencers are not eligible to compete in USA Fencing National Championship events. Foreign fencers will be required to create a profile in the USA Fencing database prior to competing in any sanctioned tournament. Foreign fencers may qualify for the July Challenge via the SJCC/RJCC system as it is not a National Championship but will need an

International Competitive License to fence in this national tournament. National point holders will not be skipped on the Regional Ranking List when determining the number of qualifiers.

Super Youth Circuit and Regional Youth Circuit (SYC/RYC): Open to current USA Fencing members with a competitive type membership are eligible to fence in youth age competitions and to age-eligible foreign fencers with a current ICL (International Competitive License) or that chose to pay the International Admin fee for region only tournaments. Foreign fencers are not eligible to compete in

USA Fencing National Championship events. Foreign fencers will be required to create a profile in the USA Fencing database prior to competing in any sanctioned tournament. National point holders will not be skipped on the Regional Ranking List when determining the number of qualifiers.

2.6.3 Determination of Divisional Qualifiers

Division qualifiers are determined by the qualifying information for various event types. For more information, see Table 2.6.3.1.

When determining who has qualified for a Championship, only fencers who qualify through National Points are skipped over to the next eligible fencer. Fencers that qualify for championships via regional points are not skipped over. Those who qualify through the division should not be skipped. For example, if a fencer competes and qualifies in a Junior division qualifier and is age eligible for Cadet, he/she will not get skipped over if they choose to also fence in the Cadet division qualifier. Those who qualify for Div IA, Div II, or Div III by earning regional ROC points are not considered automatic qualifiers at divisional qualifiers and should not be skipped over.

There is no retroactive path to qualification. Therefore, fencers who fail to qualify to enter a national tournament through a RJCC, ROC, SYC, RYC or divisional qualifying competition do not qualify simply by virtue of a qualifying fencer at the event qualifying at a later qualifying competition as well.

Qualifying forms and instructions are sent to regional (ROC, RJCC, RYC,SYC & SJCC) tournament organizers and division officers via email; information is also posted on the USA Fencing website under the Championship Tournament page and Regional Resources page (Tournament Resource s ). It is the regional tournament organizer’s and/or division officer’s responsibility to adhere to the qualifying information; failure to do so may result in qualifying field adjustments and/or nullification of the results from the qualifying tournament. Complete results from these qualifying tournaments must be submitted in the proper excel format; the qualifying report is available as an export in Fencing Time v3.02 or later.

Complete results must be submitted to the National Office via the USA Fencing registration database no later than 72 hours after the completion of the tournament. Results and reports will be accepted in any other format. These forms must reflect complete results and are the only acceptable notice from the regional tournaments and divisions regarding their qualifying fencers.

Regional tournament organizers and/or divisions who do not submit results by the deadlines described above may be charged a late fee by USA Fencing for late processing; results will not be able to be uploaded until the late fee is paid in full.

2.6.3.1 Table: Number of Qualifiers for Junior Olympic Fencing Championships and

USA Fencing National Championships from Division Qualifying Competitions (25 percent rule/round up)

Competitors

3-12

13-

17-

21-

25-

29-

33-

37-

41-

45-

# Qualifiers

2.6.4 Combined Division II/Division III Divisional Qualifier Example

Below is an example of how to determine qualifiers for Division III when the division holds only one competition to determine qualifiers for both Division II and Division III.

A Division II/III qualifying competition has the following entries:

Number of C fencers = 8

Number of D fencers = 12

Number of E fencers = 11

Number of U fencers = 15

Total number of Fencers = 46

Total number of Division II qualifiers = 12 (based on 46 total C, D, E, and U fencers)

Total number of Division III qualifiers = 10 (based on 38 total D, E, and U fencers)

How to Determine Qualifiers:

List the fencers in order of their finish.

The first 12 qualify for Division II and Division III if classification eligible at the start of the event.

Then count the number of D, E and U fencers. In this example, there are 38 such fencers. 25 percent of that group equals 10, the number of fencers who can qualify for Division III Nationals only.

Starting with the first fencer after those qualified for Division II (in this example, 13th place); count off the next 10 D, E or U fencers who have not already qualified by other paths. These (10) D, E, or U fencers are qualified for Division III. Any C fencers in this range are skipped, but not counted against the 10, because they are not eligible to fence Division III.

2.6.5 Petition Process

In exceptional cases, subject to approval by the USA Fencing Board of Directors or National Office, a member of USA Fencing in good standing may be permitted to qualify to the Division I Championships,

Junior Olympic Fencing Championships, the July Challenge or the USA Fencing National Championships by petition. No petition may contravene the results of a qualifying competition – a fencer who has fenced in the qualifying competition without withdrawing due to a disabling injury or illness cannot then petition to disregard or override those results. Petitions will be denied for fencers who chose to fence in a regional qualifier (RYC, SYC, RJCC, and ROC) over their division qualifier. U.S. citizens and Permanent Residents are eligible to petition.

The following criteria and procedures are applicable to filling a petition:

A petition may be filed by a fencer who qualified (by means of competition or petition) to that same competition in the prior season or whose recent competitive record indicates a strong possibility that the athlete would have qualified had they been able to compete in the qualifying competition but:

Was unable to compete in the various qualifying competitions this season due to injury, illness, military deployment/study abroad, compulsory school requirements OR
Did compete and had to withdraw because of a disabling injury or illness OR
The number of qualifying athletes at a division qualifying tournament changed due to the inclusion of ineligible fencer(s) in the tournament

(Note: Athletes who attend a school or university in the United States, outside of their division, shall not constitute inability to compete.)

All petitions must be made through an online system to USA Fencing National Events; the petition link is available through the specific tournament page on www.usafencing.or g . Under no circumstances will petitions be accepted if received after the late fee entry deadline for the Championships.

Petitions received for the same athlete two seasons in a row will not be considered.

The petition must be accompanied by:

A non-refundable fee of $100.00, payable to USA Fencing; this will be charged at the conclusion of the online petition process.
A written statement that gives specific details of the dates, reason for absence or withdrawal, and other pertinent facts. Written notice from the independent attending physician and/or statement from the Bout Committee must substantiate any medical reasons if the medical reason required withdrawal from the qualifying competition.
A summary of the fencer’s significant recent competitive results. In particular, results in previous National Championships and recent North American Cup (NAC) competitions should be noted. (Example: top 64 international, top 8 in a USA Fencing NAC/Championship, top 16 at a ROC, top 24 at an SYC).
A completed entry form for the Junior Olympic Fencing Championships, Division I National Championships, USA Fencing National Championships or July Challenge with the correct registration and entry fees or receipt indicating entry was submitted online. If the petition is not approved, only the event fee will be refunded.
Responses to the petition will be made via email. Petitions that do not meet these requirements will not be considered.
Decisions on petitions will be based upon the validity of reasons given for absence or withdrawal and the probability that the fencer would have qualified had they competed in the qualifying competition to its conclusion, based on results achieved in other recent competitions.
If a fencer is permitted to enter the Junior Olympic Fencing Championships, Division I National Championships, July Challenge or USA Fencing National Championship competition by this petition procedure, the fencers’ entry will in no way affect the number of qualifiers from the division involved.

2.7 Qualifying Competition Protest Process

If the qualifying competition was not run in accordance with the USA Fencing rules, a protest may be submitted via email to nationalevents@usafencing.org specifying the rule infraction(s). This must be done immediately to the Bout Committee at the qualifying competition and within three business days after the qualifying competition to the National Office; otherwise, no action will be taken by USA Fencing. Even if a timely protest is submitted, there is no guarantee that the protest will be upheld.

For more detailed information regarding the protest process, see below from the USA Fencing Operations Manual.