World Cup Round Up – Barcelona Women’s Epee, Turin Women’s Foil and Antalya Women’s Sabre
Tricky weekend as no Brits get past the round of 64
Italy, Spain and Turkey were the destinations for this weekend’s fencing action and three Women’s World Cups. 28 British women headed to Barcelona (Epee), Turin (Foil) and Antalya (Sabre).
Barcelona welcomed 240 fencers from around the world including ten from Great Britain to take part in their World Cup Epee competition. Three Brits fell after the first round winning only one fight our of six – MacKinnon, McGeever and Smith. The others went through – Albini (V2D4), Chang (V3D3), Cohen (V3D3), Highton (V3D3), C. Lawrence (V4D2), H. Lawrence (V5D1) and Usher (V3D3). In the first of three preliminary knockouts to make the second day and the top 64 Cohen beat Damas (SPN) 15-8, Albini beat Perez Garcia (SPN) 15-3 and the others progressed with byes. Only C. Lawrence progressed through the next knockout fight winning 15-13 against Scanlan (USA). Bekefi (HUN) beat Albini 15-13, Westman (SWE) beat Chang 15-10, Boscarelli (ITA) beat Cohen 15-9, Briasco (ITA) beat Highton 15-13, Zuikova (EST) beat H. Lawrence 15-12 and Christmann (GER) beat Usher 14-8.
C. Lawrence went on to beat Takacs (HUN) 15-14 to make the second day where she faced world number 13, Li (CHN). Lawrence was unable to overcome her opponent losing 14-8. The event was won by world number 1, Branza (ROU) who beat her compatriot, Gherman 15-11 in the final. The bronze medals went to Piekarska (POL) and Sun (CHN).
At the team event on Sunday Great Britain lost 45-41 in the round of 32 to finish 18th. The event was won by Romania who beat Ukraine 45-39. Russia beat Hungary 40-22 to take the bronze medal.
GB individual placings: C. Lawrence 56th, H. Lawrence 98th, Usher 126th, Chang 129th, Highton 135th, Cohen 151st, Albini 157th, McGeever 194th, MacKinnon 197th, Smith 222nd.
Eight British fencers headed to Italy to join a field of 156 at the World Cup in Turin. Bennett (V1D5), Cook (V0D6), McKenzie (V0D6) and Ng (V1D5) did not survive the poules stages. Bentley (V3D3) was knocked out 15-9 by teammate Emanuel (V3D3) in the first preliminary elimination matches. Sheppard had a bye and Troiano progressed beating Civiero (SUI) 15-9. All three failed to mke the second day – Korobeynikova (RUS) beat Emanuel 15-9, Sugawara (JPN) beat Sheppard 12-9 and Varga (HUN) beat Troiano 10-8.
The event was won by Salvatori (ITA) who beat Gruchala (POL) 15-10 in the final. Ikehata (JPN) and Nickichina (RUS) took the bronze medals.
In the team event Korea beat Great Britain 17-11 in the round of 16. Great Britain then beat Ukraine 27-26 and Canada 30-22 but lost 45-26 to Germany to finish 10th. The event was won by Italy who beat Korea easily 45-27. The bronze medal went to France who beat Poland in a close match 45-41.
GB individual placings: Sheppard 70th, Troiano 86th, Emanuel 88th, Bentley 105th, Bennett 129th, Ng 130th, Cook 143rd, McKenzie 144th.
Ten British women took part in the World Cup sabre event in Antalya joining a field of 128. Bilardi (V1D4), McMillan (V0D6), Watson (V1D4) and Williams (V1D4) were eliminated after the first round. Hutchison (V6D0) earned herself a bye to the second whilst the remaining fencers did enough to make the preliminary knockout stage – Bond-Williams (V3D2), Kempe (V3D2), Nicholl V2D3, Roberts (V2D3) and Robinson (V3D3). Only Kempe was able to do enough to join Hutchison in the round of 64 beating Aguttsottur (ISL) 15-11. Xia (CHN) beat Bond-Williams 15-14, Kozlova (UKR) beat Nicholl 15-12, Bujdoso (GER) beat Roberts 15-7 and Paizi (GRE) beat Robinson 15-8.
On day two of the event Kempe went out to Vecchi (ITA) 15-8 and in an incredibly close match Hutchison fell 15-14 to Benko (HUN).
In the team event GB drew Italy in the round of sixteen and whilst they put in a great effort the Italians went through 45-36. In the placings matches GB beat Hong Kong 45-39, lost to Hungary 45-38 but then put in a great performance again Germany beating them 45-40 to take 11th place. The event was won by Russia who beat the USA 45-34 with the bronze medal going to Ukraine who beat Azerbaijan 45-28.
GB individual placings: Hutchison 38th, Kempe 54th, Bond-Williams 74th, Robinson 80th, Nicholl 87th, Roberts 92nd, Watson 108th, Williams 109th, Bilardi 119th, McMillan 123rd.
Next up on the circuit is the Men’s Epee World Cup in Paris, Men’s Foil World Cup in Bonn, Men’s Sabre World Cup and Women’s Sabre Grand Prix in Moscow.
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