Report from the Foil Grand Prix in Turin

This weekend saw the start of the new Grand Prix format presented by the FIE and the Italian Fencing Federation, as the world’s top men and women foilists took to the piste in Turin, Italy.

Women’s Foil

Five British fencers took part in this event forming part of the 134-strong field.  Only Natalia Sheppard (V4D2) was able to get through the poules as Ruth Clarke (V2D4), Catherine Cook (V2D4) Emma-Tina Segall (V0D6) and Dominique Szokolovics (V0D6) did not do enough to get through.  Sheppard’s first round performance was enough to earn her a bye through the first of the two-fight preliminary knockouts.  She went on to beat Tagliapietra (ITA) to progress to the round of 64 on Saturday.  There she faced Golubytskyi (GER) and it was the German who went through their low-scoring match 4-3.

Arianna Errigo (ITA) continued her amazing run of form.  The reigning World Champion came into the tournament having won the first two events of the season and the only fencer to give her any trouble in Turin was Margaret Lu (USA) in the round of 32.  Errigo won that match 15-11 and then progressed to the gold medal match with ease, where she beat teammate, Elisa Di Francisca 15-7, for the hat trick.  Anita Blaze (FRA) and Adelina Zagidullina (RUS) won the bronze medals.

GB individual placings:  Sheppard 52^nd, Cook 105^th, Clarke 109^th, Szokolovics 126^th & Segall 129^th.

Click here for full individual results.

Men’s Foil

Ten British fencers competed in this event joining a field of 176.  Being ranked in the top sixteen in the world meant that James Davis had a bye through to Sunday’s round of 64, so nine British fencers took part in the early stages.  Laurence Halsted won all of his first round matches and Richard Kruse only lost one of his poule matches, which earned them both byes directly to the round of 64.  Tom Hendrie (V4D2), Rhys Melia (V4D2), Marcus Mepstead (V3D3), Ben Peggs (V4D2) and Alex Tofalides (V3D3) all made the first round cut but Keith Cook (V0D6) and Amol Rattan (V0D6) did not.  In the first of two preliminary knockout fights Peggs progressed with a bye whilst Mepstead won 11-10 against Nemeth (HUN) and Tofalides defeated Janda (POL) 15-12 but Petrisic (CRO) knocked out Hendrie out 15-10 and Melia lost 15-13 to Tsoronis (DEN).  In the second preliminary fights Peggs beat Llavador (SPN) 15-12 to make the round of 64 as Aspromonte (ITA) defeated Mepstead 15-6 and H. Chen beat Tofalides 15-8.

The competition continued on Sunday morning.  Kruse progressed with a comfortable 15-6 victory over Djitli (ALG) and was joined in the round of 32 by Halsted who beat Safin (RUS) 15-11.  Willette (USA) came back from behind at 8-2 to beat Davis 15-14 and Cassara (ITA) defeated Peggs 15-8.  In the round of 32 a strong performance from Kruse saw him beat Williette (USA) 15-6 but Heo (KOR) ended Halsted’s day, beating him 15-12.  Kruse then arrested a strong comeback from Garozzo (ITA) with a 15-14 victory to go on to face Aspromonte (ITA) in the quarterfinals.  A decisive start from the Italian saw him progress to the medal matches with a 15-11 victory.

Aspromonte (ITA) had to settle for bronze along with Race Imboden (USA) as two Russians fought off for the gold medal.  It was Alexey Cherimisinov who took the title, beating teammate Renal Ganeev.

GB Individual Placing:  Kruse 8^th, Halsted 23^rd, Davis 33^rd, Peggs 56^th, Tofalides 84^th, Mepstead 86^th, Melia 99^th, Hendrie 100^th, Rattan 162^nd & Cook 169^th.

Click here for full individual results.

The 2014/15 senior season continues this coming weekend an Epee Grand Prix taking place in Doha next weekend.