New Rules for CFF Competitions

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Date:   04 February 2002
To:      CFF Referees, Provincial members, Competition organizers
From:  Manuel S. Belmonte, Ch.P.C

Here below you will find the new rules for CFF competitions. The referee committee has determined which of the FIE adopted rules we will be applying for our competitions. The only rule that we will not be applying is the "passivity" rule, we will look at applying it when we get more clarification.

The following text has been translated, from the French, by the FIE. You can look at the full document on the FIE website.

• The time for each bout in pools and each relay (bout) in team matches is three minutes.
   
• Immediate warning (yellow card) against the competitors who do not respect the specification for the bend of the blade (1cm épée, 2cm foil, 4cm at sabre) from the moment they say they are ready to fence.
   
• Falling is no longer an offence and is consequently no longer penalized
   
• During the team events, there should be a place reserved for the team members. Only the team captain and a trainer have the right to stay with the team fencers inside the team zone. The team zone must be well delimited with a yellow line on the ground or some another (sic) system. It must be 9 sq. m. in area and be located between 2 to 6 meters at each end of and separated from the piste zone, which must be 18m X 8m. During team matches, the members of the team on the piste must remain within the team members' zone reserved for their team. During individual and team events no member of either team may enter inside the limits of the piste zone without permission of the referee. Should such an offence occur, the referee will inflict the penalties provided for by articles t114, t116, t120 against the team at fault. The warning will be awarded against the team and will be valid for all the bouts of the match. In this case, if, in the same match, a fencer commits another offence of the 1st group, the referee penalizes him, each time, with a red card (penalty hit).
   
• The direct elimination bouts are for 15 hits or end when the three periods of three minutes, with one period of rest between the periods, have passed. Exceptionally, at sabre (only), the first period will end either when the three minutes have passed or when the score of one of the fencers has reached 8 hits.
   
• Crossing the lateral boundary with one foot or both feet result in the instruction "Halt" and the opponent steps forward one meter. A hit scored by the fencer who crosses the lateral boundary of the piste with one foot remains valid, if the action was launched before the command "Halt". If one of the fencers leaves the piste with both feet, only a hit made by the fencer who remains on the piste with at least one foot is counted, even in the case of a double hit.

The referee committee encourages you to use these rules effective immediately. If you have any questions regarding these, or any other rules, please contact Manuel Belmonte.

MSB
td@fencing.ca