China out to break European domination

China is aiming to break Europe's fencing domination at the Olympics even though their only gold winner now competes for another country.

In Athens four years ago, China won three silver medals and lost the men's foil team final to Italy after a referee made a series of scoring mistakes that possibly cost them the gold.

That team competition has been dropped from the Beijing program but in the individual event China's Sheng Lei and Jun Zhu will hope to ride the local crowd's support to the podium.

Athens champion Brice Guyart of France, triple world champion Peter Joppich of Germany and world number one Andrea Baldini of Italy are the favourites. Baldini has been number one for two years but lost to Joppich in the last two world finals.

'Yes, he's starting to be a problem,' Baldini joked in an interview with Reuters. 'Peter is ... and always ready for the big match, but also a good man outside the piste.'

Italian Andrea Cassara, bronze medallist in Athens and European champion this year, did not qualify because countrymen Baldini and Athens silver medallist Salvatore Sanzo are ranked higher.

Each country is allowed up to three fencers for weapons with a team event, but only two for individual events.

Along with men's team foil, the women's epee team competition was also removed and replaced with women's team sabre and women's team foil.

Italy's women's foil team is stacked with the top three fencers in the world.

Double gold medallist Valentina Vezzali is back at 34 after giving birth in 2005 and undergoing knee surgery in 2006. She won her fifth world championship in 2007 and is also back at number one in the rankings.

Her friend Giovanna Trillini, 38, will be looking for a rematch of the Athens final she lost 15-11 to Vezzali. The two come from the same town -- Jesi, population 40,000 -- and were room mates in the Olympic village in Athens.

Hyun Hee Nam of South Korea could ruin the Italians' plans. She was banned from the national team two years ago for undergoing cosmetic surgery on her cheeks but has returned to the fold.

Women's foil is another competition that could feature the comeback story of the Olympics in Jujie Luan, who won China's only fencing gold in 1984 before emigrating to Canada.

Aged 50, she took time off from her job as a fencing coach in Edmonton to compete all over the world and scrape up the qualifying points to represent her adoptive country in Beijing.

The winner of the individual women's epee gold in Athens, Timea Nagy of Hungary, did not qualify for Beijing.

Frenchwoman Laura Flessel-Colovic will be hoping to add to her two golds from 1996 and silver and bronze from 2004. But she has slipped to 14th in the rankings and German duo Britta Heidemann and Imke Duplitzer, the numbers one and four, look better bets for the epee title.

In the men's event, the 2004 Olympic champion, Marcel Fischer of Switzerland, also did not qualify. China's Wang Lei, world champion in 2006, will try to improve on his Athens epee silver and will have to fend off top-ranked Silvio Fernandez of Venezuela and 2007 world champion Krisztian Kulcsar of Hungary.

Hungary, champions France and Italy are the favourites in the men's epee team event.

After winning individual sabre gold and bronze in Athens, the American women could sweep the individual medals and win the team gold with world number one Sada Jacobson, second-ranked Rebecca Ward and Mariel Zagunis, winner of the first American fencing gold in 100 years in Athens.

'That's very optimistic, but statistically it is possible,' Jacobson told Reuters. 'The way we are seeded, we could all end up in the top four without running into each other.'

They will have tough opponents in Athens silver medallist Xue Tan of China and Russia's Elena Netchaeva, the world champion. In the team event, France and Russia could provide stiff resistance to the Americans.

In the men's event, Aldo Montano of Italy will defend his Athens title against team mate and world number two Luigi Tarantino.

The transparent mask, introduced in the Athens sabre event, will also be used in foil in Beijing. Video replays and athletes' challenges of referee decisions will be allowed for the first time in Olympic fencing history.