The no handshake with the Russian was agreed in advance - Jean Beleniuk about the scandal at the World Fencing Championship

Olga Harlan and the management of the International Fencing Federation agreed that there would be no handshake after the fight with Russian Smirnova - this was reported by Jean Beleniuk, citing his own sources.

It should be reminded that according to the FIE rules, "refusal of a fencer to greet the opponent, referee and spectators before the start of the fight or after the last blow" can lead to disqualification, which happened: the Ukrainian sabre fencer was disqualified from the World Championship after refusing to shake hands with the Russian.

Ukraine's official reaction

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for Olga Kharlan's rights to be restored and allowed to compete.

Anna Smirnova lost a fair competition and decided to play dirty with a handshake. This is how the Russian army acts on the battlefield," Kuleba added.

But according to FFU president Mykhailo Ilyashev, it is no longer a question of Harlan being returned to the World Cup.

Ukraine is going to appeal against the disqualification of Ukrainian fencer Olga Kharlan at the World Championships. This was stated by the President of the Fencing Federation of Ukraine Mikhail Ilyashev on the air of the telethon.

We fully support Harlan. Now we are preparing a protest. We will appeal against this decision, because the judge who judged the fight did not give a "black card" and did not disqualify. It was later that the "underhand games" began and this disqualification appeared after the next opponent was determined," he said.

Ilyashev hopes that the consideration of the appeal will take place in the next few days. According to him, there is no question of returning to the competition.

In this case, we will seek the cancellation of this "black card", because it will entail the impossibility of her performance in the team competition, which will be in a few days in Milan. And it is important for us that our team performs," he added.

What happened

The FIE counted the Ukrainian fencer a technical defeat in the next round of the competition. Her bout with Bulgarian Ilieva did not take place.

This is reported by the official website of the competition.

It is reported that the Russian refused to leave the track and waited almost an hour for the Ukrainian to return to shake her hand. And then filed a complaint to the judges about "disrespect on the part of the opponent".

Opposite Harlan's surname in the list of competitors on the web-portal of the World Championship-2023 there appeared a note exclusion - exclusion.

The FIE did not inform officially why Harlan was disqualified.

Almost immediately after the information about Harlan's disqualification appeared, photos of Smirnova with her brother - a serviceman of the Russian Federation, who, quite possibly, is now fighting in Ukraine, appeared in the network.

We shall remind you that the competition took place a few hours after the Ukrainian government changed its policy and allowed its athletes to compete in the Olympic selection against individual athletes from Russia and Belarus competing under a neutral flag.

Under the previous policy, adopted on 31 March, Ukrainian athletes were advised not to compete against Russians and Belarusians in any capacity.