Rankings

To see the rankings click on the picture to the left.

FAQ:

Why does the competition I went to not show up?

If we don’t receive the results files we can’t do the rankings,  so we ask the organisers to send us the correct files within 24 hours. This does not always happen and so ranking updates may be delayed.

Another reason a competition won’t show up in the rankings is if it is not a ranking competition. For example, BYC qualifiers are closed regional competitions and so are not part of the England rankings. The BYCs are not England Fencing ranking competitions.

I thought there were only U14 rankings?

Why not have rankings if you’re competing?

There aren’t any international selections planned from the U10 and U12 rankings but fencers should be able to measure up against their peers.

The ranking scheme is basically the same as for U14 in terms of multipliers and points.

We don’t produce U17 rankings. British Fencing do have U17 rankings with specific ranking competitions. However, if you are at one of the tournaments where there are England ranking events we will still get the results and upload them so they form part of your fencing biography.

Clubs will also be able to compare themselves at all age groups and across age groups through combined club rankings – see the bottom of the page for 2022’s club rankings as an example. There is also a new section for 2023.

If you don’t register your club or attach the fencers to your club, then you unfortunately won’t show up.

Selections

There were not sufficient competitions available in this first U14 European Circuit season for England Fencing to make more than one selection per weapon.

However the rankings will roll over for 2023/24 and that England Fencing will be able to select for more than one trip per weapon.

Official document

Click on the link to open the full U14 ranking and selection document for 2023

U14 Selection Document for 2023/2024 (PDF) Update 07/12/23

Updated for 23/24 season ranking schemes

England Fencing U14 Ranking Scheme 2023-2024 (PDF)

U1o and U12 Ranking scheme for 2023 (PDF)

RANKINGS

Individual U14, U12, U10

England Rankings ALL WEAPONS

Please note that, as we transition to using Ophardt fully and clubs and coordinators match the fencers to the clubs, the foil and epee rankings will not necessarily show the clubs for the fencers.

You will see from the sabre rankings that this does get done – compare with previous season to see the difference using the date box at the top left as shown in the picture below.

Reading the rankings

The rankings take into account your 5 best results. All your results will show up, but the ones which don’t count will show up in yellow as shown in the picture below:

CHANGES FOR 2023/24

Changes to season dates

England Fencing is aligning its season dates with the rest of the world.

In recent years the season for U14 selections has been from January to December.

We changed this in January 2023 and announced that this would change to the internationally recognised 1 September to 31 August season with 2023 being a transition season for England Fencing. This will effectively be a shortened 2022/23 international season.

The 23/24 season starts on 1 September 2023.

The changes will, we hope, provide a more appropriate fencing season for our youth fencers and will get rid of the confusion surrounding what age group they belong to. This is especially useful for those who might want to compete in Europe or further afield.

1 January 2023 to end August 2023 is a transition phase.

At 31 August 2023 we will fix the rankings for the transition period and start the 23/24 season proper with removal of those fencers who are no longer eligible for that ranking. Thus all 2009 birth year fencers will not show up in the rankings for 23/24.

There will be a 100% carry over (updated 16 June 2023). The only difference between the 31 August and 1 September rankings will be that the non eligible year group will disappear from the rankings.

Events older than 12 months will drop off the rankings as their anniversary is reached or when they are repeated, whichever is sooner.

Seasons are done by birth year and straddle calendar years as they start in September and end in August.

The table below sets out the earliest year you must have been born to be in that age group for that season.

Age group/ Season	U10	U12	U14	U17	U20
2022/23	2013	2011	2009	2006	2003
2023/24	2014	2012	2010	2007	2004
2024/25	2015	2013	2011	2008	2005

Eligibility for 2023/2024 U14 rankings

An athlete born on or after 1 January 2010 counts as U14 for the 2023/24 season.

How do I know what age group I am in?

Just look at what YEAR you were born in. The actual date of birth is not relevant. Athletes born in 2010 and later are eligible for inclusion in the 2023/24 rankings.

Birth year 2009 was the top year for the 22/23 rankings and will not be included in the 2023/24 U14 rankings.

The basic rule for cadets and juniors is that an athlete is under the relevant age on 1 January of the year in which the world championships are held for that age group. The U14 rules mirror the cadet and junior rules.

For reasons of development, enjoyment and safety we recommend that the top 2 years (2010 and 2011 for 23/24 season) compete in the U14 events and 2012 (for 23/24 season) and younger compete in the younger age groups which are designed specifically for them. However this is not a mandatory requirement and is at the discretion of the organisers, the parents and coaches of the younger athletes. Most important is that they enjoy themselves safely.

Example

Q: I was born on 4 January 2009. The competition is on 6 January 2023. Am I eligible to compete and be included in the U14 rankings for the season 22/23?

A: Yes. At midnight on 31 December 2022 how old were you? You were 13. On 6 January 2023 you will already be 14 but you are still in the 22/23 season.

Naming of events in transition period

Some events will be named in a potentially misleading way during the period from 1 September to 31 December 2023.

The U13 LPJS and Cocks Moors Woods events will actually equate to  U14 events as the years of birth will be correct for an U14 event. They will be called U13 as the LPJS series for the calendar year 2023 started with them as such. The organisers may decide to make it clear that these are in fact U14 events for England Ranking purposes, while still being U13 events for the LPJS series rankings.

The U14 events in some series may actually turn out to be effectively U15 events in this period and will therefore not be eligible for England Fencing ranking points. This is a choice which the organisers have made in order to preserve their own series rankings for 2023. This is quite understandable in this transition period.

For example the U14 Elite Epee events will not count towards England Fencing rankings.

Some U14 events will be ranking events as the organisers have chosen to make the change at the earliest possible time. Thus the Newham Sword foil series events will be England Ranking events.

For other series, please check the entry details carefully and/or ask the organisers.

At present we are assuming events will adapt their entry requirements as Newham Swords has done and will therefore be eligible.

We reserve the right to remove competitions from the rankings if the results show the presence of out of age fencers.

Multipliers for U14 rankings

For the new season the following multipliers will apply:

N.B. The age category refers to the actual as opposed to headline age.

U14 events with more than or equal to 10 fencers – 200

U14 events with fewer then 10 fencers – 200 x 0.5 = 100

U13 events with more than or equal to 10 fencers – 100

U13 events with fewer than 10 fencers – 100 x 0.5 = 50

U14 EFC International events hosted in the UK – 250

England Youth Championships – 300

The reason for the changes is to encourage fencers to go slightly further afield safe in the knowledge that they will not be hugely disadvantaged due to low competitor numbers.

The basic points key – 20 x the multiplier for a win for example – will remain the same.

An additional refinement of the points key will be added for competitions which have repechage in the last 32 in order to give credit for extra DE victories.

In other words points from the U13 event will count towards the U14 ranking in the next season. Therefore they need to be at least as high as for an U14 competition and then higher to reflect the importance of the competition.

U12 events

U12 events do not count towards the U14 rankings.

Requirements for organisers

We want to make it easy to compile the rankings and, most importantly, we want to provide the fencers with as much useful data for their fencing biographies as possible.

In order to achieve this there are a few simple things that need to be done by the competition organisers:

• register your club and club admin in Ophardt (many clubs are already listed by admins are not allocated)
• put your competion in the events calendar in Ophardt at least 4 weeks before the event
• produce your results in FencingTime, Engarde or Ophardt, or another system which can produce XML files for the results.
• provide XML files of the results to the relevant rankings coordinator in a timely manner and named clearly for each competition (eg Results_GFU12).
• provide the PDF file for each of the competitions in your tournament – previously optional, this is compulsory for the 23/24 season so please make sure your software version can generate the files.

Organisers do not have to take entries via any particular system as far as England Fencing is concerned. That is a matter of choice.

Futher details are in the full document, so please read that carefully. To be updated for the new season as at 5/8/23

Help for organisers

Help will of course be provided to all the clubs and organisers in setting up competitions in the calendar and any other aspects related to the rankings and the calendar. Many of the competitions are already there as they were run in 2022 so just need to be rolled over, the correct dates input. Then further details such as links to the entry platform, timetable and the like can be added.

If help is required in purchasing licences for the competition software England Fencing will very possibly help with that – especially for small and new competition organisers.

Downloading XML files and Results Kit PDF

FencingTime

If you are using FencingTime you need to read pages 71 and 72 of the manual (PDF)

Engarde

If you are using Engarde the procedure is similar

There is a guide to running a competition from start to finish. Here is the relevant 4th part:

In the screenshot used in the online manual you can see the various menu items in French.

We have added the blue arrows. The arrow on the left points to saving a permanent copy which is probably the equivalent of the results kit in FencingTime.

The arrow on the right points to saving an XML file suitable for the FIE. This is the XML file to send to the rankings coordinator.

Labelling of files

Please label the files clearly for each one you download. For example U10 MF would be U10 men’s foil.

If you have mixed poules please also download the relevant files and mark them for example U12 Foil mixed poules

Completeness of files

Just because the U15, U16 and U17 events don’t count towards rankings does not mean they should be ignored. Please download the files for all the competitions you ran at the event. This way we can make sure the results go to the fencers’ biographies and that there is a complete record of your event.

2023/24

For the season 2023/24 further changes are planned, including:

• requirement to have qualified referees or trainee referees with a qualified mentor throughout, This will encourage the training of referees. Funding will be available for the mentor to attend as well as organisational help with this.
• feedback questionnaire to allow for continuous improvements

It was felt that this would be too much to ask at short notice for the start of 2023 but that it would be useful to flag these up in advance so organisers could prepare.

Please note that, as we transition to using Ophardt fully and clubs and coordinators match the fencers to the clubs, the foil and epee rankings will not necessarily show the clubs for the fencers.

You will see from the sabre rankings that this does get done – compare with previous season to see the difference using the date box at the top left as shown in the picture below.

Why is there a Union Jack and not the England Flag? This is because England comes under GBR for FIE purposes. It is neither a slight on England nor an appropriation of the Union Jack.

On the public rankings page you will see it in more context and with the England Fencing logo as shown below.

Clubs

For club admins to attach fencers to your clubs, please go to the admins page and follow the instructions.

Club rankings are here

Club Rankings

We have rankings for clubs and you can find them here

They are in season order and by weapon.

There are also individual weapon and combined weapon rankings for the England Youth Championships results

Please note that, as we transition to using Ophardt fully and clubs and coordinators match the fencers to the clubs, the foil and epee rankings will not necessarily show the clubs for the fencers.

Why is there a Union Jack and not the England Flag? This is because England comes under GBR for FIE purposes. It is neither a slight on England nor an appropriation of the Union Jack.

On the public rankings page you will see it in more context and with the England Fencing logo as shown below.

Previous years

Individual weapons rankings in Excel for 2022

England Rankings 2022 EPEE

England Rankings 2022 FOIL (Excel)