Under the Selection Policy, a "Designated Tour" is defined as a tour planned by the National Weapons Coach, and agreed to be a designated tour by the AFF's High Performance Commission.

This Operational Protocol is designed to identify the process by which a Tour becomes designated.

1.  A National Weapons Coach, as part of the High Performance Program planning will identify a tour that may be "Designated".

2.  The timing of the Designation should be as far in advance as possible, so as to allow athletes to plan their training and competition schedule around any Designated Tour.  This time period will preferably be at least 4 months, so that if any Category E assessments for events not appearing in Appendix A of the Policy are required, these can be done within the mandated time frame.  It is recognised, however, that the release of details for the timing of events as they appear in Appendix A of the Policy may be well short of the desired 4 months, and this will consequently impact the time frame for Designation.

3.  The National Weapons Coach then formally requests the High Performance Commission to Designate a Tour, providing as much information as the HPC requires to confirm the benefit to Australian fencers for the Tour.  It should be noted that a Designated Tour may include a single competitive event, as it may form part of a larger trip which includes training and other non-competitive activities.

4.  The HPC communicates its Tour Designation to both the National Weapons Coach, and to the AFF's webmaster for publication, similarly to that already in process for the Category E Assessments under the Policy.

It shoud be noted that there is no restriction under the Selection Policy of who may compete in events that form part or all of a Designated Tour (ie. there is no "invitation" process), but the normal provisions of the Selection Policy may apply where Australia has a limited number of entries available to it.

Athletes should also note the documentation generally regarding competing overseas. > View information about competing overseas

The High Performance Commission will not identify any Senior event in the 12-month period ending in April in a year of the Olympics as being part of a Designated Tour.

[An Operational Protocol is information about the process by which the AFF Executive generally makes its decisions.  It is designed as a matter of governance and transparency so that stakeholders in various decisions may inform themselves as to how decisions are usually made.  An Operational Protocol is not policy, and cannot be subject to appeal.]

Last Updated 12 September 2015.