Fencing Federation of Ukraine called on the referee to resign after punishing Harlan

Head of the Ukrainian Fencing Federation Mikhail Ilyashev called on technical referee Dieter Lammer to resign. So he reacted to the disqualification of Olga Harlan after refusing to shake hands with Russian Anna Smirnova at the World Championships.

Mr. Ilyashev drew attention to the video of Mr. Lammer’s conversation on the phone, “which was given to him by Anna Smirnova’s coach.” According to the head of the Ukrainian federation, this happened “in the process of the development of the conflict.” “Imagine a situation where a judge in a courtroom takes the phone from a representative of one of the parties and talks to someone. Such a judge is unreliable and should retire, we believe that this also applies to Dieter Lammer,” Mr. Harlan told the portal Inside the Games.

Incident took place at the World Fencing Championships in Milan. Olga Kharlan defeated Anna Smirnova in the 1/32 final with a score of 15:7. After the duel, the Russian woman wanted to approach the Ukrainian woman, but she put her saber forward and did not let her opponent approach her, and then left the track. Smirnova filed a protest and waited 50 minutes for a decision, remaining on the track. The Ukrainian was disqualified because the rules require the opponents to shake hands after the match. The International Fencing Federation later canceled the punishment, and Harlan was able to take part in the team competition. By information Media, handshakes at fencing competitions will be allowed to be replaced by a greeting from a distance.

Leonid Uvarchev