Russia on top of the World

On the last day of the Championships the Junior Men’s Foil and Women’s Sabre teams closed out the action.

Junior Men’s Foil Team

Great Britain (Archer, Brosnan, Hendrie & Kiss) was one of thirty teams to take part in this event.  In the round of 32 Great Britain impressed by beating Ukraine 45-32 but in the round of 16 they faced the number two seeds, Korea.  The Koreans were too strong and knocked Great Britain 45-28 leaving the British in fourteenth place.

In the semi-finals China dominated Italy, winning 45-32 whilst Japan gave the USA a run for their money but the Americans went through to the gold medal match 45-39.

The bronze medal match saw Italy (Ciuti, Ingargiola, Rosatelli with Francella in reserve) take on Japan (Matsuyama, Saito, Shikine with Oishi in reserve).  Ingargiola edged a tense first bout with Shikine but Matsuyama blew Ciuti out of the water in the second, taking Japan into a 10-7 lead.  The Italian coach acted immediately and replaced Ciuti with Francella.  It proved an inspired substitution as Italy led 30-23 after six bouts and took the medal 45-33.

In the gold medal match Russia (Chen H., Chen Y., Huang with Wang in reserve) took on a USA team (Bravo, Massialas, Woo with Kiefer in reserve) who were appearing in the their seventh Men’s Foil Team World Championship gold medal match in a row.  The Chinese took an early lead by dominating the first three bouts and went into the fourth 15-10 up.  In the fifth bout, Massialas staged a brief comeback that was halted by his opponent calling for an injury time-out.  The medical team assessed Huang but refused to authorize the 10-minute break on the grounds that they could not establish a valid injury.  That appeared to be the right decision as Huang returned to the piste showing no signs of malaise.  Woo came on for the USA in the sixth with the score at 24-22 to the Chinese.  Despite being up against the strongest Chinese fencer and individual gold medalist, Chen H., the USA led twice during that period but China finished the bout 30-28 up.  A strong finish from the Chinese team saw them take the World Championship title 45-38.

Full results here.

Junior Women’s Sabre Team

Great Britain did not enter this event but twenty-three other teams did.  France edged a close semi-final encounter with the USA 45-43 as Russia made the other semi-final look easy, beating Italy 45-18.

The bronze medal match between Italy (Ciaraglia, Criscio, Fondi with Prearo in reserve) and the USA (Jarocki, Palmedo, Russo with Stone in reserve) was a one-sided affair.  The Americans raced to a 15-11 lead and the Italians were forced to substitute Prearo on for the under-performing Fondi.  It did not make a difference as the USA team blitzed their way to a 45-26 win to take the medal.

A charged up French team (Brunet, Lecoq, Rifkiss with Gimalac in reserve) took on Russia (Bashta, Karbolina, Sukhova with Vorobyeva in reserve) for the last gold medal of the Championships.  The French team continued demonstrating the form they had shown all day and led 15-7 after three fights.  The Russians staged a comeback starting in the fifth bout but France still led 30-25 after six.  A stunning 10-4 seventh leg for Bashta against Lecoq meant that Russia edged into a 35-34 lead.  They did not look back as France was only able to score another five hits.  Russia closed the Championships in style taking the World Championships title 45-39.

Full results here.

Russia finished the Championships top of the Cup of Nations with Hungary in second and Italy in third.