Veteran Fencers

Page content: Age categories : Competition formats : Competition timetable : Useful documents

Veterans' fencing competitions are open to any fencers who fit the age category - both those who have fenced from a young age and those who have taken it up more recently.

Both NSW Fencing and the AFF run Veterans' competitions. Other events that may be of interest to NSW veteran fencers include the World Veterans' Championships, the Commonwealth Veterans' Championships, the Oceania Veterans' Championships and various Masters' Games.

Age Categories

Generally, a "veteran" is defined as a fencer who is aged 40 or above on the day of the event. However, for World Veteran Championships, the minimum age is 50, and for Masters' events it is only 30.

Where age categories are applied to an event, they will normally be increments of 10 years. So a large tournament might have a 40-49 category, a 50-59 category, a 60-69 category and a 70+ category. Where age categories are combined in the one event, the event organisers may choose to apply a "handicap" system.

Competition Formats

Most veteran competitions are run to standard competition formats.

A key difference, however, is that Direct Elimination (DE) bouts in Veterans' events are normally to 10 hits, rather than the standard 15 hits.

Competition timetable

2012 calendar items will be added by the start of the year. PDF competition timetable (see below) has full calendar.

Useful documents