African and European Athletes Gear up for Upcoming Continental

With the London 2012 Olympic Games only eight months away a total of 41 countries have secured 84 out of the 128 allocated places including four (4) places automatically granted to the host country, Great Britain.

Of the remaining 44 places, 16 places will be awarded during the African Qualification Tournament which will be held in Cairo, Egypt, on January 11th -12th , 2012, while 24 will be decided at the European Qualification Tournament which will take place in Kazan, Russia on January 27th-29th, 2012.

The last four (4) allocated places, so called "wild cards", will be decided through the tripartite consultation among the IOC, the WTF and the ANOCs. (Refer to the WTF website (www.wtf.org) for more detailed information on the events)

The athletes who will participate in the upcoming qualification tournaments have being working hard with the hope of achieving a ticket to London as the Qualification events are only weeks away. The competition in the upcoming events will be foreseen to be extremely competitive due to this being the last opportunity to qualify for the London Olympics.  At the World Qualification Tournament held in Baku, Azerbaijan, 11 out of 24 allocated places went to European countries.