Volunteers from GDUFS in the FIE Congress

On November 20th and 21st 2015, the Congress of the International Fencing Federation (FIE) was held in the International Conference Hall of the Garden Hotel in Guangzhou, which was also the first time it has been held in China. Frederic, Secretary General of FIE; GAO Zhidan, Party group member and Assistant to Director General of General Administration of Sport of China, Vice-president of the Chinese Olympic Committee and Vice-president of All-China Sports Federation; WANGWei, Head of the Bicycle and Fencing Administration Centerin General Administration of Sport of China, Vice-president of FIE and President of the Chinese Fencing Association; LINJi, Deputy Secretary General of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Government, and Deputy Chief of sports bureau in Guangdong LIN Ying were present at the opening ceremony on the morning of November 21st. Nine volunteers from GDUFS including ZHENG Jieru were sent to the Garden Hotel to serve as interpreters, among other things.

Group photo of nine volunteers at the FIE congress

The FIE is an organization administrating the fencing movement all over the world, boasting of member associations from over 150 countries and regions. The FIE congress is the most important annual work meeting as well as a meeting with the highest level of the FIE. There were about 210 representatives from 122 member associations of the FIE involved in this conference. Additionally, representatives of the bidding units for  major events and winners of the year’s award-giving activities were also invited to the conference.

The Congress mainly summarized this year’s work; adopted the annual work report of the Executive Committee; heard the annual financial final accounts and the budget for the coming year, and determined issues like the amendment of the constitution and rules. Meanwhile, Wuxi was elected as the host city of the 2018 World Fencing Championships through a vote, which was the first time for China to win the right to host the world fencing championships.

During the service lasting six days from 18th to 23rd November, the nine volunteers’ major duties were to receive representatives from various countries in the conference reception, to prepare materials necessary to the conference, to lead there presentatives into and out of the conference hall and to accompany the cultural activities. Since this conference was top-leveled, all the volunteers were selected from outstanding students in the Faculty of English Language and Culture and School of English and International Business, among whom two were postgraduates ands even were senior students. Representatives participating the conference spoke highly of the services from GDUFS volunteers. Besides, the fencing champion of the 2012 London Olympics LEI Sheng and the fencing champion of the 2014 Asian Games MA Jianfei were present at the media presentation conference, and took photos with our volunteers.

LEI Sheng (left), MA Jianfei (right) and one of the volunteers (middle)

Chinese Report: 我校志愿者服务国际剑联大会