CADET & JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2012 REPORT – DAY 8
France and the USA take the team gold medals on the penultimate day of the Championships
It was a day of Women’s Team Sabre and Men’s Team Foil on day eight of the Cadet & Junior World Championships in Moscow’s Olympic stadium.
Women’s Team Sabre
Great Britain didn’t enter a team into this event but there were 18 other teams involved in the competition. The event was won by an entertaining French team (Boudad, Boudiaf, Boulay and reserve Chapuis) 45-44 against the China (Li, Liang and Yu). The Chinese started well and raced to a 15-10 lead after three fights. On came Boulay (FRA) and she recorded a 10-3 victory putting the French ahead 20-18. They held the lead before Yu (CHN) came on and scored 8 unanswered points putting the Chinese ahead 35-30. They held that lead until Boulay came on for the penultimate match and scored another 10 hits putting the French into a narrow lead, 40-39. The last fight, between Boudiaf (FRA) and Liang (CHN), was a corker. China looked like they were going to take the title at 44-43 but Boudiaf scored the last two hits and the French became World Champions. The bronze medal was won by Russia who beat Italy 45-44 in another exhilarating match.
Men’s Team Foil
Great Britain’s team of Kristjan Archer, Callum O’Donnell, Amol Rattan and Alex Tofalides joined a field of 25 teams in the Men’s Team Foil event. Ranked 11th, they faced the 22nd seeds in the round of 32, Australia. A confident start by Archer, O’Donnell and Rattan saw them take an early lead and dominate the match. Tofalides replaced O’Donnell to anchor the team to a 45-24 victory. They met China in the round of 16 and were 20-12 down after four fights. An impressive sixth fight from Tofalides put the GB team ahead 30-39. China weren’t to be thwarted though and came through 45-40. The British team were beaten but put in an impressive display nonetheless.
The event was won by the USA (Chang, Imboden, Massialas and reserve Dudey) who beat a strong Russian team (Filippov, Lichagin, Safin and reserve Degtyarev) 45-36. The USA team went 10-4 up after two fights but then Lichagin (RUS) scored 9-5 against the USA number 3, Chang, to bring the score to 15-13 to the USA. After this wobble, the USA team never looked back, even though Lichagin (RUS) scored 11-5 against Imboden (USA) in the penultimate match. Massialas anchored the USA team to the World Championship title. The Italian team beat China 45-34 to take the bronze medal.
GB Placing: 12th
The last day of the Championships sees team competitions with 27 entries in the Women’s Epee and 33 entries in Men’s Epee events.
