Inna Deriglazova secures another women’s individual foil title in Leipzig

The 27-year-old Russian continued her imperious record in the women’s foil, which includes an Olympic gold medal from the 2016 Rio Games, as she defeated Italy’s Alice Volpi 14-13 in a thrilling Final. Bronze medals went to Italy’s Arianna Errigo and France’s Ysaora Thibus.

The pre-competition prediction that the women’s individual foil would be one of the most closely fought competitions of the whole Championships was soon proved to be correct.

All of the major contenders had safely negotiated their way to the last 16 until the major surprise of the competition saw world number three, USA’s Lee Kiefer, depart proceedings at the expense of Poland’s Julia Walczyk, ranked number 17 in the world, by a 15-12 scoreline.

Deriglazova had no such problems, accounting for Poland’s Hanna Lyczbinska in the last 16 by a 15-10 scoreline, before Italy’s Camilla Mancini went the same way in the quarter-finals 15-9. However Deriglazova then delivered her most telling performance in the semi-finals, beating the two-time Italian World Champion Errigo, 15-6.

Volpi’s path to the Final saw her progress past Tunisia’s Ines Boubakri 15-13 in the last 16, before bringing Walczyk’s run to an end in the quarter-finals with a 15-9 victory, ahead of beting Thibus in the second semi-final, 15-12.

The Final proved to be a nail-biting encounter with Deriglazova and Volpi duelling through three full periods, but it was the Russian who prevailed with a win by one point, 14-13, to complete a hat-trick of titles.

Speaking afterwards, Deriglazova said, “From year-to-year to win is more-and-more difficult.

“Today was a very hard day, and especially the final match was crazy, but I won, and I’m happy.”