International Technical Director Ioan Pop said on Wednesday FIE (International Federation of Fencing) has done a lot of work to achieve total transparency in the fencing competitions of the Beijing Olympics.

Pop told Xinhua that four years ago in Athens, because of faults of a referee, China lost to Italy in the final of men's foil team competition.

"Since Athens, the FIE has done a lot of work. We changed some of the rules and we introduced the video refereeing system, in sort to improve neutrality, objectivity and referees' competence," he said.

"At the Beijing Olympics, we've also installed some big TV screens, which will be branched to the video refereeing system, all spectators can watch. We want to achieve the total transparency", he added.

Pop also reviewed the evolution of the fencing sport during the last 15 years in the world. "The fencing sport in mutation. Now, the number of countries which could win a medal at the Olympics doubled, or even tripled," he told Xinhua.

"The FIE is satisfied with this evolution," Pop said.

According to him, countries from Asia, Latin America and Africa have all witnessed a development of the fencing sports. China, Japan and South Korea all entered in the ranking of top countries in the sport, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2008)