World Championship titles for Kiefer and Curatoli

The 2014 Cadet and Junior World Championships continued on Sunday, 6^th April, in Plovdiv, Bulgaria with the preliminary stages of the Junior Women’s Foil and Junior Men’s Sabre events.  With each event split over two days, thirty-two fencers in each event progressed through to the round of 32 which took place on the following day.

Junior Women’s Foil

With a total of 95 entries, Yvonne Chart (V3D3), Chloe Dickson (V4D2) and Ayesha Fihosy (V5D0) all made it through the first round with Dickson and Fihosy getting byes through the round of 128.  Chart fenced Kwag (AUS) in the round of 128 and beat her 15-9 to make the round of 64.  There, seeded fourth, Fihosy had a nervy fight against Song (KOR) but made it through to the second day winning 15-13.  Chart and Dickson did not, losing to Mienville (FRA), 15-8 and Szalai (HUN), 15-10, respectively.  In the round of 32, Fihosy faced Dlugosz (POL) and whilst keeping the match tight until the final period, was always behind.  Dlugosz went on to win 15-8.

In the first semi-final Lee Kiefer (USA) took control of the fight in the second period and romped to a 15-7 victory over Svetlana Tripapina (RUS).  The second semi-final was a closer affair but Eleanor Harvey (CAN) produced two stunning attacks against Karin Miyawaki (JPN) at 13-13 to seal her place in the gold medal match 15-13.

In the final, Harvey kept the favourite, Keifer honest in the first period and they went into the first break with nothing between them at 4-4.  The American came out at the start with a better control of distance, starting her approach to the Canadian much more slowly and drawing attacks on preparation.  She was then able to mix counter-attacks whilst closing the distance with parry ripostes to go 13-5 up.  Harvey was not out of it though as she suddenly changed the pace of the fight and pressured Kiefer.  By the second break the score was 13-10 in favour of the American but with the momentum with Harvey.  Kiefer was not to be beaten though and another change of tactics saw her close the distance right up so that she could land two beautiful attacks as Harvey prepared.  Kiefer became the 2014 Women’s Foil World Champion 15-11.

GB placings: Fihosy 18^th, Dickson 46^th & Chart 56^th.

Full results here.

Junior Men’s Sabre

There was just one British entry in this event as Jonathan “JJ” Webb joined a field of 117.  He won three of his five first round fights but was unfortunate enough to have one fencer scratch from his poule.  However, ranked 41^st, he made easy work of his round of 128 fight, beating Di Martino (ARG) 15-3.  He went on to beat Lam (SIN) 15-10 in the round of 64 to make the second day.  There, he faced An (KOR) who was somewhat of an unknown quantity.  An took the fight 15-8 meaning that Webb finished in 30^th place.

The first semi-final was an all-Russian affair with Dmitriy Danilenko taking an 8-7 lead into the break over Alexander Trushakov.  He gradually pulled away in the second period, winning 15-10.  It was somewhat of a surprise to see Tom Seitz (FRA) take a commanding 8-3 lead into the break against World number one, Luca Curatoli (ITA) but it was one that he thoroughly deserved.  He built on it in the second period but at 10-3 up the French fencer came out of an accidental collision with his opponent with a bloody nose.  This proved to be a turning point in the match as Curatoli stormed back and took the fight 15-13.

In the final, Curatoli came out with intent against Danilenko and despite a lengthy technical delay went into the break 8-3 up.  With both fencers going into the second period on yellow cards for starting early, red cards played a part at the start.  The first one went to Curatoli for the same offence and then the Russian was carded for stopping the fight unnecessarily.  Nonetheless, the World number one became the World Champion with a 15-8 victory.

Full results here.

The Junior individual events continue tomorrow with the conclusion of the Men’s and Women’s Epee competitions.