Four Italians in top eight in London

This weekend, Italian fencer, Francesco Ingargiola, successfully defended the Eden Cup title that he won in 2014.

The event, held at SportsDock (Univeristy of East London), saw one hundred and fifteen fencers take to the piste on Saturday.  He won all of his first round fights leaving him ranked sixth for the direct elimination stages and was only troubled by Sido (FRA) in the round of sixteen (who he beat 15-13) on his way to the gold medal match.  There he met teammate Tommaso Ciuti and a classic battle of the Italians ensued. 

Both fencers were evenly matched and employed well-timed and well-executed attacks on preparation.  It was Ciuti who edged the first period but Ingargiola opened the distance in the second period and closed the gap to just one point at 11-12 down.  The momentum had swung Ingargiola’s way as he dominated the final period, scoring the final hit with a flamboyant counter-riposte to take back-to-back Eden Cup titles.

It was a disappointing event for the British contingent as no fencer was able to make it past the round of 64.  Full results for the competition are available here.