Report from the Sabre World Cups in Athens and Padua

The senior international season continued last weekend with sabre events in Athens, Greece and Padua, Italy.

Women’s Sabre World Cup – Athens

A field of one hundred and seventy-two fencers took part in the sabre World Cup in Athens including Katherine Kempe, Bridget Pleasant and Sophie Williams from Great Britain.  Kempe and Williams won three of their six first round matches whilst Pleasant won two of her five fights meaning that all three qualified for the preliminary knockout stages.  Unfortunately, they did not make it any further as Michel (USA) defeated Kempe 15-11, Klemm (GER) beat Pleasant 15-8 and Pundyk (UKR) knocked out Williams 15-12.

Olga Kharlan (UKR) beat Sofya Velikaya (RUS) 15-14 to take the gold medal as Rossella Gregorio (ITA) and Dagmara Wozniak (USA) settled for the bronze medals.

Great Britain was not one of the twenty-two entries to the team event.  Ukraine beat Russia 45-35 to take the title with the USA defeating Hungary 45-40 for the third place.

GB individual placings:  Williams 109^th, Kempe 110^th & Pleasant 115^th. 

Click here for full individual results.

Click here for full team results.

Men’s Sabre World Cup – Padua

One hundred and ninety-one fencers took part in this event including eleven from Great Britain.  Soji Aiyenuro (V2D4), Alex Crutchett (V4D2), James Honeybone (V5D1), William Deary (V2D4), Kirk Slankard (V3D3) and Jonathan Webb (V2D3) all made it through the first round but Michael Clarke (V2D4), Jacob Gander-Compton (V0D6), Chris Lawrence (V0D6), Curtis Miller (V0D6) and Brynmor Saunders (V2D4) did not do enough to make the cut.

In the first of two preliminary knockout fights, Crutchett beat Fitz-Gerald (JPN) 15-7, Webb defeated Del Valle (ESP) 15-10 whilst Honeybone progressed with a bye.  However, Rousset (FRA) knocked Aiyenuro out 15-7, Repetti (ITA) beat Deary 15-10 and Statsenko (UKR) ended Slankard’s day with a 15-8 victory.  In the second preliminary Webb progressed to his first ever senior 64 with a 15-12 win over Tokunan (JPN) but Crutchett fell 15-11 to Repetti (ITA) and Zu (CHN) beat Honeybone 15-7.  On the second day of the event the tournament’s number two seed, Bongil Gu (KOR) proved too much for the less experienced Webb, knocking him out 15-8.

Kamil Ibragimov (RUS) beat Andriy Yagodka (UKR) 15-11 to take the title as the bronze medals went to Junghwan Kim (KOR) and Sanguk Oh (KOR).  It is worth noting that this was Oh’s first ever competition.

Great Britain was one of twenty entries to the team event and Canada in victory (45-43) over Canada in the round of 32 meant that they faced Korea in the round of sixteen.  A dominant display from the Koreans saw the number one seeds progress 45-19.  Great Britain then went on to lose 45-33 to France and 45-34 to Iran before beating Hong Kong 45-26 to finish fifteeth.

Russia easily beat Germany 45-25 to take the gold medal as Italy edged a tight match over Korea 45-44 to take the bronze medal.

GB Individual Placing: Webb 63^rd, Honeybone 65^th, Crutchett 80^th, Slankard 125^th, Aiyenuro 138^th, Deary 139^th, Clarke 144^th=, Saunders 144^th=, Gander-Compton 174^th, Lawrence 175^th & Miller 183^rd.

Click here for full individual results.

Click here for full team results.

The 2014/15 senior season continues this weekend with foil World Cup events in Algiers and Bonn.