Denmark on Thursday called off an international fencing event in protest against a decision by the sport’s global governing body to allow Russian and Belarusian fencers to return to international competition.

The move to cancel the second-tier under-23s competition planned for October was taken reluctantly, the head of the Danish fencing federation said.

“It is with a heavy heart that we make this decision but we cannot support the return of Russian and Belarusian fencers to the pistes during the ongoing circumstances,” Jan Sylvest Jensen told AFP in a statement.

More details on SportsDesk.