Borel, Hartung and Deriglazova land golds at European Fencing Championships in Novi Sad

Borel won the men’s individual epee event, Hartung successfully defended his men’s individual sabre title whilst Deriglazova took out the women’s individual foil competition.

The Senior European Fencing Championships are taking place at the Novi Sad SPC Vojvodina “SPENS” Sports Center in Novi Sad, Serbia, and have already lived up to expectations with some top quality fencing being fought which was reflected in the latter stages of the latest competitions.

Borel had to fight all the way before securing the individual men’s epee title, winning the Final match against two-time World Champion and world number three fencer from Estonia, Nikolai Novosjolov, by a single point, 15-14.

To get there Borel faced Germany’s Richard Schmidt in the semi-final, winning with a 15-10 scoreline, while Novosjolov took out world number two, Ukrainian Bogdan Nikishin, in another close bout thanks to a 10-9 scoreline.

Hartung successfully defended his European Championship title for the second year in a row, winning the gold medal in the men’s individual sabre competition. The German faced Russia’s Kamil Ibragimov in the final and after a close fought battle came through to take gold with a 15-12 score.

Hartung had endured a tough road to the Final, securing a one-point win 15-14 over two-time Olympic gold medallist from Hungary, Aron Szilagyi in the quarter-finals, before recording the same narrow decision in the semi-final against Georgia’s Sandro Bazadze. Ibragimov beat his teammate, Dmitriy Danilenko, 15-9, in the other last four encounter.

In the women’s individual foil competition, world number one Deriglazova took gold over Italian two-time World Champion Arianna Errigo, thanks to a 15-9 victory in the Final.

Deriglazova had a comfortable win over Poland’s Martyna Synoradzka in the semi-final winning by 10 touches to 4. The Polish fencer, who is ranked 68th in the world, did have the consolation of a career-best finish from reaching the last four.

Errigo, ranked fourth in the world, met her Italian teammate and current world number two, Alice Volpi, in the semi-final, winning with a 15-8 score.

In the women’s individual epee competition, Estonia took three of the four medals on offer as Katrina Lehis took the top prize of gold.

Lehis defeated her teammate Kristina Kuusk, in the final by a point, 15-14 to secure what was a career-best win. To get there Lehis edged out Russia’s Violetta Kolobova, who was winner of the European Zonal title last year, in a close semi-final, 14-13, whilst Kuusk beat Estonian World Champion Julia Beljajeva in the other tie, 15-7.

The competition was not without its fair share of surprises as top-ranked Olympic gold medallist Emese Szasz-Kovacs from Hungary went out in the round of 32 to two-time Italian World Champion Rossella Fiamingo 15-14. Fiamingo then lost out in the next round to Romanian Ana Maria Popescu, 15-12.