British Men’s Epee Team Finish Fourth

The Under-23 European Championships have been taking place in the Belarusian capital, Minsk for the past few days and Great Britain were represented in four disciplines.

Day 1

Women’s Sabre

Forty-one fencers were entered into this event including Emily Ruaux.  She won two of her six first round matches which meant that she just missed out on qualifying for the elimination stages.  Anna Bashta (RUS) took the title beating Caroline Queroli (FRA) in the final and Angelika Wator (POL) beat Rebecca Gargano (ITA) for the bronze medal.

Full results here.

Men’s Foil

Thirty-six fencers competed in this event including Alex Lloyd and Samuel Finch of Great Britain.  Lloyd won two of his six first round bouts which meant he qualified for the elimination stages.  He beat Mario Langer (AUT) 15-6 in the round of 64 before losing 15-10 to Francesco Ingargiola (ITA) in the next round.  Finch did not win any of his first round matches and therefore missed the cut.  Alexander Choupenitch (CZE) beat Kirill Borodachev (RUS) to win the gold medal as Luka Gaganidze (GEO) claimed the bronze medal by beating Alexander Sido (FRA) in the third place play-off.

Full results here.

Day 2

Men’s Epee

The field of seventy-seven in this event included four from Great Britain.  Tomas Curran Jones did the best in the first round by winning four of his six matches to qualify for the elimination stages.  He was joined there by Paul Sanchez-Lethem who won three from six and Nicholas Beaumont who won two from six.  Harrison Nichols only managed one victory from six fights so was eliminated.

In the round of 64 Curran Jones beat Viacheslav Karpov (BLR) 15-5 and Sanchez-Lethem knocked out Georgiy Bruev (RUS) 15-13 but Alvaro Ibanez (ESP) defeated Beaumont 15-10.  The remaining British fencers both went out in the 32 as Alexander Riedel (GER) beat Sanchez-Lethem 15-8 and Lorenzo Buzzi overcame Curran Jones 15-7.

Jakub Jurka (CZE) won the tournament beating Volodmyr Stankevych (UKR) in the final as Zsombor Banyai (HUN) took the bronze medal by beating Wojciech Kolanczyk (POL) in the medal play-off.

Full results here.

Day 3

Men’s Team Epee

Great Britain was one of sixteen countries to take part in this event.  They beat Russia 45-37 and Belarus 45-38 to make the semi-finals, where they met Italy.  The Italians were just too strong and went through 45-36 leaving Great Britain to face Poland for the bronze medal.  Another close match followed but the Poles took the medal 45-38.  Spain beat Italy 45-38 in the gold medal match.

Full results here.