Russia and Italy excel in Plovdiv

The 2016 Under-23 European Championships took place in Plovdiv, Bulgaria between 1^st and 4^th May with two days of individual events followed by two days of teams.

Day One

Women’s Foil

Katherine Beardmore took part in this event which included forty-two other competitors.  One victory from five first round fights was not enough for her to progress to the elimination stages.  Svetlana Tripapina (RUS) won the first gold medal of the event with a 15-10 victory over Francesca Palumbo (ITA) as Marika Chrzanowska (POL) and Martina Sinigaglia (ITA) shared the bronze medal position.

GB placing: Beardmore 34.

Men’s Epee

Three British fencers lined up in a field of seventy-six in the largest individual event of these championships.  Only Tomas Curran-Jones (V4D2) did enough to progress through the first round as Matthew Dickinson (V1D5) and Paul Sanchez Lethem (V2D4) were knocked out.  Curran-Jones could not make it past the round of 64 as Poland’s Wenglarczyk beat him 15-12.

Yulen Pereira (ESP) took the title beating.  Yuval-Shalom Frielich (ISR) 15-13 in the final.  Mateusz Antkeiwicz (POL) and Sandro Cho Taeun (HUN) picked up the bronze medals.

GB placings: Curran-Jones 38, Sanchez Lethem 65 & Dickinson 72.

Men’s Sabre

Brynmor Saunders was Britain’s only competitor in this event as fifty fencers lined up for the first round.  Saunders was unable to win any of his first round fights meaning an early end to his tournament.  Sandra Bazadze (GEO) took the title beating Francesco D’Armiento (ITA) 15-10 in the final with Leonardo Affede (ITA) and Alexander Trushakov (RUS) completing the podium.

GB placing: Saunders 50.

Day Two

Women’s Epee

Sixty-eight fencers took part in this event including two from Great Britain.  Hannah Nesbitt and Elisabeth Powell both took one victory from six first round fights, which was not enough for either to progress to the elimination stages.  Poland’s Aleksandra Zamachowska claimed gold with a 15-6 victory over Daria Martynyuk (RUS) in the final.  Tatiana Gudkova (RUS) and Georgia Pometti (ITA) were the bronze medalists.

GB placings:  Nesbitt 56= & Powell 61.

Men’s Foil

There were three British fencers in a field of fifty-nine in this event.  Alexander Lloyd (V4D2) and Kamal Minott (V2D4) did enough to progress through the first round but Ben Bates (V0D6) did not.  Lloyd went on to beat Dadikozian (BUL) 15-2 in the round of 64 as Minott fell 15-9 to Tsevan (BLR) at the same stage.  Doerr (GER) ended Lloyds day, beating him 15-13 in the round of 32.

Austria claimed the gold medal in this event as Tobias Reichetzer beat Jakub Surwillo (POL) 15-10 in the final.  Guillaume Bianchi (ITA) and Felix Klein (GER) claimed the bronze medals.

GB placings: Lloyd 25, Minott 43 & Bates 59.

Women’s Sabre

There were no British fencers in the field of forty in this event.  Chiara Mormile (ITA) took the final individual title of the tournament, beating team mate Martina Criscio 15-11 in the gold medal match.  Russians, Evgenia Karbolina and Maria Ridel were the bronze medalists.

Day Three

Men’s Team Epee

Curran-Jones, Dickinson and Sanchez Lethem formed the British team that competed in this event.  They narrowly lost 45-41 to Sweden in the incomplete round of 32 to finish seventeenth.  Russia beat Ukraine 45-34 to claim the gold medal as Italy picked up the bronze by beating Germany 45-35.

Women’s Team Foil

Just seven teams took part in this event and it was Russia who claimed the gold medal beating Italy 44-25 in the final.  Poland claimed the bronze medal with a 45-31 victory over Hungary.

Men’s Team Sabre

Twelve teams were involved in this event as Russia struck gold again with a 45-38 win over Georgia.  The bronze medal went to Germany who beat Belarus 45-43.

Day Four

Women’s Team Sabre

The Italian team was crowned champions in the women’s team sabre, beating Russia 45-43 in a tight final.  The nine-team competition saw Belarus awarded the bronze medal in a 45-4 victory over Poland.

Men’s Team Foil

Bates, Lloyd and Minott made up the British team who took part in a field of thirteen in this event.  They lost 45-30 to Georgia in the round of sixteen to finish ninth.  Italy won the event beating Russia 45-37 in the final.  The bronze medal went to Poland who beat Germany 45-27 in the third-place paly-off.

Women’s Team Epee

Fourteen teams lined up for the final event of these Championships in Bulgaria.  Russia claimed the final gold medal, beating Italy 41-33 in the final as Poland struck bronze by beating France 45-41.

Full results can be found here.

International Round Up

Rio, Brazil was the location of the final epee Grand Prix of the season and the World Team Championships.  These events doubled up as fencing’s Olympic test.

Rio Epee Grand Prix

Abbi Matthews was Great Britain’s sole competitor in this event, joining a field of ninety-three.  One victory from six fights in the first round was not enough to see her progress to the elimination stages and she was placed eighty-fourth.  Tatiana Logunova (RUS) beat Xu Anqi (CHN) 5-3 in a tactical final as Olga Kochneva (RUS) and Katrina Lehis (EST) claimed the bronze medals.  Full results here.

In the men’s event, Christopher Rocks lined up in a field of one hundred and twenty-one fencers.  One first round victory from six fights meant that he did not progress to the elimination stages and finished one hundred and tenth.  Bogdan Nikishin (UKR) took the final epee Grand Prix title of the season beating Benjamin Steffen (SUI) 15-13 in a techy final.  Anatoliy Herey (UKR) and Park Hyoungdoo (KOR) took the bronze medals.  Full results here.

World Team Championships

Will Deary, Curits Miller, James Honeybone and Jonathan Webb lined up for Great Britain in the men’s team sabre event and beat Chili 45-17 to progress to the round of 16 where they faced Germany.  Despite a great start, the British team was beaten 45-35.  They finished thirteenth after losing 45-26 to Spain and then winning 45-25 over Japan and 45-38 against Argentina.

Russia beat Hungary 45-38 to claim the 2016 World title as Romania beat Iran 45-35 to take the bronze medal.  The result represented Iran’s best ever finish at a World Championships.  Full results here.

Great Britain did not take part in the women’s team foil event, which was won by Russia who beat Italy 45-39 in the final.  The result denied Italy’s Valentina Vezzali a gold medal in her last ever international tournament.  Despite this Vezzali finished her career as arguably the best international fencer of all time.  France eased to the bronze medal beating Korea 45-18 in the third-place play-off.  Full results here.