Since 1988 Olympic gold medal in fencing obtained by Vladimer Aptsiauri at the Olympic Games in Seoul Georgia has never had a chance to get another medal in fencing. After 26 years Georgia will have athlete again in this sports, however this time in the Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing.

During 3-6 April Sophia, Bulgaria hosts Cadets World Championships in fencing where Georgian athletes will be taking part. The said tournament is rather important for us as this is qualification event for the II YOG. Among males Nikoloz Shengelia competed successfully in saber acquiring quota place for YOG in Nanjing. He won all matches in the group defeating Hungarian and Bulgarian opponents and finally ranked 9th that was enough to qualify for this important event.

Qualification for Nanjing was allocated among the first 8 fencers at the world championships, while the European zone was entitled only to have 4 places. According to the regulation the place could be allocated to only one person per country while the first 8 places included two Russian fencers, thus one of them was automatically withdrawn and Nikoloz Shengelia took his place.

The fencers from Greece, Russia and Romania also acquired qualification places along with Georgian athlete and the group of four in addition to individual event will also participate in team competition in Nanjing.

As for the female fencers all three athletes are in good sport shape and the national federation authorities consider that they have enough skills to fight for quota places. Noteworthy is that this is so far the third qualification for Nanjing YOG. Our judokas were the first ones to acquire quota places at the Youth Olympic Festival.