Due to an administrative error at US Fencing, national points earned by fencers at the March 2019 SJCC were removed from the database supporting the calculation of fencer rankings on the National Rolling Points Standing (NRPS) prior to the January NAC. 

For some fencers, the unhappy outcome of that error was to be seeded lower than where their true ranking would have placed them in the Junior events at the recently completed January NAC in Charlotte.  For those fencers, it meant ending up in a harder pool than they otherwise should have because of the missing bucket of national points.

The problem was brought to US Fencing’s attention prior to the start of the January NAC. However, US Fencing did not add back those missing national points before the start of the tournament.

Adding back the national points earned from the March SJCC would have required US Fencing staff to conduct a “comprehensive edit” of the re-calculated rankings.  Presumably, the lack of time and resources made it difficult for US Fencing to fix the error ahead of the start of events in Charlotte, and they declined to do so.  

The Athlete Packet clearly states:

“When you check in for your event, please verify the posted seeding information (name, club, division, country, rating and ranking) before the close of check-in for your event. If you see any issues, notify the Bout Committee immediately. Changes will not be made after the close of check-in.”  

In the January situation, following this advice did not help the fencers who had their seedings affected by the removal of those SJCC National Points.

As a result, US Fencing proceeded with a series of sanctioned national events that they knew were flawed at the January NAC. This would not be the 1st time though.

See: Age Ineligibility at Division 2 and Division 3 Championship Events at Summer Nationals 2019

US Fencing must address several important issues that come to light as a result of this error:

• The apparent lack of systemic safeguards in preventing the inadvertent removal of an important bucket of national points from the NRPS.

  This is especially urgent given the importance of a fencer’s ranking on the NRPS for:

  a) seeding purposes at NACs, national championships and regional qualifying tournaments,

  b) selection on national teams by a deadline

• Is there a system in place that alerts US Fencing to errors in the NRPS database, so that US Fencing can get ahead of any potential problem before it jeopardizes a fencer’s tournament seeding or other standing.

• Was US Fencing aware of the mistaken removal of national points before it was brought to their attention by affected fencers at the January NAC?

Fencers and their families invest an enormous amount of time, emotion, energy and money in preparation for and competition at NACs, national championships, SJCCs and SYCs in pursuit of national points. 

Earning national points is a big achievement for many fencers.  Fencers count on these points to place them higher in the seedings at tournaments. To have an important set of points go missing just before a major tournament is a rather unhappy occurrence.

While we understand that human error is inevitable, we strongly urge US Fencing to implement safeguards that ensure this type of error never happens again.

Note:  US Fencing has reinstated the missing SJCC national points as at the date of this article.

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