2007 World Championships - "Official" Thread

[Craig]

Thread for discussing the 2007 World Championships in St. Petersburg, Russia.

First off - Here is the link that will have the live results:
http://www.fie.ch/External_Data/

Previews to be posted to www.fencing.net this week.

Craig

[Zilverzmurfen]

Go Sweden!


(Yay, first poster. )

[Craig]

Looks like WCSN will be doing a live feed of video from the 2007 World Championships in St. Petersburg.

Sign up for WCSN's service and watch the 2007 Fencing World Championships on demand.

This is a paid service and will bill you either $49.95 for the year or $4.95 per month. Once you sign up for their service, you'll also get access to the video archives, which include the 2005 and 2006 world championships.

Coverage starts at noon Eastern on Saturday, Sept. 29th and runs through Sunday, October 7th. If you miss the live feed, then you'll be able to view the on-demand video about 2 hours after the event concludes.

Craig

[4qtrs]

This is a copy of the fencing schedule on WCSN. The "out" time is the same as the air time.

Sat, 9/29

Individual Women Sabre

Out: 10:00-11:30 PDT (12:00-14:30 EDT)

Sun, 9/30

Individual Men Foil

Out: 10:00-12:30 PDT (13:00-15:30 EDT)

Mon 10/1

Individual Women's Epee

Out: 10:00-12:30 PDT (13:00-15:30 EDT)

Tues, 10/2

Individual Men's Sabre

Out: 10:00-11:30 PDT (13:00-14:30 EDT)

Weds, 10/3

Individual Men's Epee

Out: 10:00-12:30 PDT (13:00-15:30 EDT)

Thurs, 10/4

Individual Women's Foil

Out: 10:00-12:30 PDT (13:00-15:30 EDT)

Fri, 10/5

Team Women Sabre & Men Foil

Out: 10:00-13:00 PDT (13:00-16:00 EDT)

Sat, 10/6

Team Men Sabre & Women Epee

Out: 10:00-13:00 PDT (13:00-16:00 EDT)

Sun, 10/7

Team Women Foil & Men Epee

Out: 10:00-13:30 PDT (13:00-16:30 EDT)

[fencing freakster]

No Individual Women's Saber????? and everything else???????

REALLY FREAKING OUT FREAKSTER.....

[fencing freakster]

I see 4qtrs has it listed...but I don't see it on the WCSN link...AM I just such a freak I am missing something????
FF

[KD5MDK]

The other weapons have decided it was too popular and needed dragging back down.

[C.I.C.]

This is a copy of the fencing schedule on WCSN. The "out" time is the same as the air time...

Sun, 10/7

Team Women Foil & Men Epee

Out: 10:00-13:30 PDT (13:00-16:30 EDT)

Isn't St. Petersberg about 8 hours ahead of EDT (11 ahead of PDT)?

That puts these events all starting at 9 pm St. Petersberg time and going as late as 12:30 in the morning.
Can that be correct, or are these "broadcasts" on a delay of some length?

[KD5MDK]

They REALLY wanted to avoid 8am start times.

[Zilverzmurfen]

Isn't St. Petersberg about 8 hours ahead of EDT (11 ahead of PDT)?

Relevant link to prevent confusion.

St. Petersburg is GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) +3 hours or CET (Central European Time) +2 hours.

[Timacheff]

I'm leaving for St. Petersburg today and, depending upon Internet connections there and a few other factors, I will be posting images from events on fencingphotos.com as soon as possible.

[C.I.C.]

Relevant link to prevent confusion.

St. Petersburg is GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) +3 hours or CET (Central European Time) +2 hours.

I'm not confused. You've confirmed that St. Petersburg is 8 hours ahead of U.S. EDT and 11 hours ahead of PDT, which would put those events at 9 at night there if the times listed by 4qtrs' are correct.

[misha]

Isn't St. Petersberg about 8 hours ahead of EDT (11 ahead of PDT)?

That puts these events all starting at 9 pm St. Petersberg time and going as late as 12:30 in the morning.
Can that be correct, or are these "broadcasts" on a delay of some length?

Most likely they are showing only medal round, so it is reasonable to start at 9:00 PM, after all it will be 7:00 PM for the most of the Europe...


.

[sabreur]

In further demonstration of the success of Rene the Roach's efforts to make fencing a popular, televisable sport, Eurosport coverage this year consists of:

Mon 1 Oct: 0800-0900 Greenwich Mean Time
Thu 4 Oct: 0700-0815 Greenwich Mean Time
Mon 8 Oct: 0830-0930 Greenwich Mean time

I believe the vernacular assessment of this coverage would be:

IT SUCKS!

[Mo]

No Individual Women's Saber????? and everything else???????

REALLY FREAKING OUT FREAKSTER.....

Calm down you wacky freak!!! It may be on, or you may be able to get a tape of it!

WHOSE idea was it to have this competition in such a freaky time zone?

Momster,

[KD5MDK]

Are the Azores in a Mid Atlantic time zone? How about Bermuda? Easy compromise for everyone.

[Zilverzmurfen]

Are the Azores in a Mid Atlantic time zone? How about Bermuda? Easy compromise for everyone.

How about Atlantis or Rapa Nui?

If you wanted the WC's to not be held in a "freaky timezone" then why didn't USA offer to host it?

[edew]

Cancun. Most of the resort hotels are well air-conditioned.

[Timacheff]

Update:

I got to St. Petersburg late last night, and came to the venue today. Most everyone at the championships is staying at the same hotel, the Park Inn, which is about a 15-minute bus ride from the venue; the buses run every 30 minutes. The hotel is huge and everyone has to hike long distances to get to their rooms. There's no internet service in the rooms, and the WiFi available in the lobby is way pricey (about $20 for an hour) so not too many people are getting online. So don't expect too much in the way of emails or blogs from people here!

The venue is also huge, and very spread-out. The lighting looks quite good and there's plenty of seating although no one is sure what the crowds will be like; it's hard to say. Things seem reasonably well-organized at this point, but tomorrow will be more telling when we get to top-32 and above. Wireless systems seem to be operating well. Unlike past world championships, there will only be one individual event/final per day (nine days total). Normally they have two, and a one-day break in the middle. For team events, there will be two finals per day (one men, one women).

Women's individual sabre prelims have been going on today, with top-16 having byes. Dagmara Wozniak (USA) did well in her pool today (5-1) with most of the U.S. athletes cheering her on.

The mascot for the games is a Russian polar bear wearing a Fencing 2007-St. Petersburg t-shirt.

There have been a few credential issues and only a limited number available, so some of the people here not directly involved in the event have had to buy tickets. Very few vendors are here due to issues involving Russian customs; PBT and Allstar have a combined stand with their local Russian representative. StM has a small shop mostly selling blades (big surprise) but showing some very colorful, non-approved uniforms. There's also a Russian vendor here who first showed up at the juniors in Turkey, selling some very cool, small scoring machines. (I think I'm going to order one!)

On the bus today I sat with a guy from NBC Olympics who has been touring around Europe interviewing athletes at various "key" events as background for Beijing. He was at a world basketball championship, was most recently in Azerbaijan for the world wrestling championships, and is now here specifically to get bios on women's sabre fencers. He said it was "refreshing to be at an event with lean, good-looking athletes after being at an event where they all had hairy backs and cauliflower ears." It was nice to see that NBC has someone here -- it's a good sign!

[edew]

No! It's a bad sign. It just means more "Up-close and personal" BS that just ruins the Olympics. The IOC must stipulate any future telecasting of the Olympics CANNOT have any Up-close and Personal segments. Just show the damn sport and be done with it.