"the segregation was in accordance with IeSF tournament regulations and was to 'avoid possible conflicts (e.g. a female player eliminating a male player during RO8 [round of eight]) among other things.'"
What makes that a 'possible conflict'?
What makes that a 'possible conflict'?
Fixing it by allowing women to go forward was what made the most sense.
So even if the local organizers in Finland would have rebelled (which they did not), and allowed women to participate in the national event (which would have been against the IeSF rules), they probably could not have sent the national champion – in case she was female – to the international championship games.
So the local organizers decided to follow the IeSF rules and not allow female participants. But something like this stands out in Europe, so there was something of a media storm, and everything turned out nicely: IeSF decided to update their rules.