Alexander Massialas wins gold in men’s individual foil at the Challenge de Paris

The highly-rated silver medallist from the Rio 2016 Olympic Games beat Russia’s Timur Safin to claim the individual title, whilst Italy’s men’s foil team earned gold in the team event.

The Challenge de Paris was held at the historic Stade Pierre de Coubertin arena in the French capital and featured over 200 individual men’s foil fencers and 20 teams from around the world. Some of the world’s top-ranked athletes, including Olympic medallists, participated in the prestigious event held over three days and as a result the individual competition was always going to be a closely contested affair.

Massialas had a strong showing in the opening qualifying rounds, advancing easily to the round of sixteen where the competition began to really pick up, beginning with a narrow 15-14 defeat of Italy’s Guillaume Gianchi.

He then went on to beat another two Italians to make the Final, first easing past Francesco Trani 15-12 in the last eight, before accounting for Giorgio Avola in the semi-finals via a 15-11 scoreline.

Safin, a bronze medallist in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, reached the Final by beating USA’s Gerek Meinhardt 15-12 in the quarter-finals, before progressing past Korea’s Taegyu Ha in the semi-finals by the same scoreline.

After such impressive displays by both fencers, the Final then lived up to all expectations and in a tense closely fought encounter Massialas had to call upon all his reserves before eventually narrowly beating his Russian counterpart 15-14.

Avola and Ha took bronze medals, whilst there was fifth place finish for Great Britain’s Richard Kruse. USA’s Gerek Meinhardt, Italy’s Francesco Trani and Japan’s Toshiya Saito made up the remaining top eight finishers.

Any disappointment that Italy may have had at seeing their fencers depart the individual competition was forgotten as they achieved a strong victory in the team foil competition.

Having survived a narrow 45-44 victory over USA in the semi-finals, the Italian overcame hosts France to win 45-21 to earn the gold medal.

France had earlier defeated Japan 45-38 in the semi-finals but despite again being backed by a typically enthusiastic home crowd they could not replicate that form in the Final as the Italians completed a comfortable success.

In the battle for third place, USA earned a bronze medal against Japan, 45-34, with Russia, Korea, Germany, and Poland making up the top eight in the team competition.