Six Romanian fencers, three women and three men, will compete in the fencing competition in Differdange, Luxembourg, April 26 and 28, the last qualification chances for the 2024 Summer Olympics, in which only the winner in each event gets a ticket to Paris.

No Romanian has so far qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games. In Tokyo, in 2021, Romania had two representatives in the individual events, Ana-Maria Branza, in the women’s epee, silver medallist, and Iulian Teodosiu, in the men’s sabre.

The six who will compete in Luxembourg are Alexandra Predescu (epee), accompanied by coach Iulian Bratu; Malina Calugareanu (foil), coach Virgil Saliscan; Sabina Martis (sabre), coach Tiberiu Dolniceanu; Iulian Teodosiu (sabre), coach Rares Dumitrescu; Alexandru Sirb (foil), coach Marius Gheorghe, and Alex Oroian (epee), coach Lehel Nagy.

Calugareanu is the most likely to succeed, as she won a Rio 2016 qualification tournament but failed at the one before the Tokyo Olympics, and so is Iulian Teodosiu, a 2022 world bronze medallist.

In Luxembourg, the last six tickets to Paris will be awarded in three individual weapons, male and female.

The competition starts on Friday with the men’s foil and women’s epee events, with finals scheduled on the same day, on Saturday come the men’s sabre and women’s foil events, and on Sunday the women’s sabre and men’s epee events.

If no Romanian fencer wins a final, Romania will not have a representative at the 2024 Olympics, because it is unlikely that Romania will receive one of the places redistributed by the International Fencing Federation.

Fencing has won Romania 16 medals at the Olympic Games, four gold, five silver and seven bronze.

AGERPRES