You will know by now that GB’s women have a bye to the Last 8 and are seeded 5th. France are seeded 4th so they fence eachother. But how are these seedings calculated?
Great Britain has a seeding total of 60.009 because the 3 fencers with the best placings came 9th, 20th and 31st. 9+20+31=60. The best placed fencer was 9th so that is added on to the total as .009 to give 60.009. The lower the total, the better the seeding.
You can see that the highest placing of an individual fencer in the team is also important. When you compare Germany and France – they both add up to 36 but Germany’s Nitschmann (who incidentally put out Melissa Jane in the 64) came 3rd whereas France’s Chabrol (who put out Lexie Craze in the 16) came 7th. Thus Germany have a total of 36.003 and France have 36.007 and so are seeded lower.