Golden showing from Peter Joppich and Team France at Men’s Foil World Cup in Bonn

The four-time world champion beat France’s Enzo Lefort in the Final to take the honours, however there was some consolation for Lefort as his French compatriots won gold in the team men’s foil event.

More than 200 fencers from 22 nations from around the world made their way to the Bonn Hardtberghalle sporting arena in Bonn as the World Cup event attracted an impressive group of top-level men’s foil fencers keen to boost their world ranking.

Joppich had to negotiate a path past two USA fencers to make the Final. First he accounted for former world champion Miles Chamley-Watson in the quarter-finals before progressing to the gold medal match by easily beating Race Imboden 15-5 in the semi-final.

Lefort had to dig deep to make the Final, beating Alex Tofalides 15-12 in the quarter-finals before edging out world number two, Russia’s Timur Safin, 15-14 in the semi-final.

That was where the Frenchman’s run of success ended as Joppich, always a spectacular fencer to watch on the piste, won the Final and gold medal thanks to a 15-11 scoreline.

In the men’s team foil event, France defeated Italy in the Final with a strong performance and a 45-34 scoreline.

Meanwhile, Russia lost to France had earlier beat Russia 45-38 in the semi-final, whilst the Italians progressed thanks to a default win against USA in the semi-final 40-20, due to the Americans having to take a medical withdrawal.

There was also World Cup action in Italy as Estonia’s Julia Beljajeva and China’s women’s epee team both won gold medals at the Legnano Women’s Epee World Cup.

Another strong field of nearly 200 women fencers and 21 national teams around the world participated in the competition, which featured an array of World and Olympic champions.

Beljajeva, a former world champion in women’s epee, defeated France’s Lauren Rembi 12-8 in the final to take gold, this having beaten the current ranked world number one, Tunisia’s Sarra Besbes 15-11 in the semi-final.

Rembi, who took fourth place in the Rio 2016 Olympics, beat Ukraine’s Dzhoan Feybi Bezhura in a low-scoring semi-final match, 4-3, to make the gold medal match

The major upset of the tournament saw Rio 2016 Olympic champion Emese Szasz-Kovacs, currently ranked third in the world, eliminated in the round of 64 by Italy’s Camilla Batini, ranked 118th, by a 15-9 scoreline.

Estonia had a very good weekend overall with two individual medals and a silver team medal, as they were defeated in the team final by China, who won gold at the event with a 28-25 scoreline.

The Estonians beat Korea in a low-scoring semi-final, 15-12, whilst the Chinese edged out Ukraine 34-33 in the other semi match.

In the bronze medal round, Korea took the medal against Ukraine by virtue of a 45-34 victory.