Italy lead the way at Senior European Fencing Championships in Tbilisi

Twelve events including men’s and women’s team and individual competition in foil, sabre, and epee were competed for at the New Tbilisi Gymnastic Arena which saw more than 400 individual fencers from throughout the European continent take part.

The event, which drew good participation and representation from country teams, saw Italy take home the most gold medals from the Championships with four, followed by Russia and France.

In the individual competition, Russian women’s epeeist Violetta Kolobova, currently ranked fourth in the world, took the zonal title for the second time in her career by beting Germany’s Alexandra Ndolo, 15-10, in the Final. Kolobova beat top-ranked Olympic gold medalist Emese Szasz-Kovacs 15-13 in the semi-final, whilst Ndolo defeated World Champion Estonian Julia Beljajeva, 15-12, to make the final.

In the men’s competition, the world number one, France’s Yannick Borel, took the gold for the second year in a row, defeating World Champion Paolo Pizzo of Italy, 15-10. Borel took out two-time World Champion Nikolai Novosjolov of Estonia in the semi-final, by a similar scoreline.

In the foil discipline, two World Champion and Olympic medallists battled for women’s gold. Olympic gold medallist and World Champion Inna Deriglazova of Russia was beaten in the final by World Champion and Olympic silver medallist, Arianna Errigo of Italy, in a nail-biter of a match that ended 15-14, this after Errigo had beaten France’s Ysaora Thibus in the semi-final, 15-9.

The men’s competition saw Olympic gold medallist and top-ranked Italian Daniele Garozzo beat Olympic bronze medallist and third-ranked Russian Timur Safin, 15-12 for the gold.

There was delight for the home fans in the sabre competition, as Georgia’s Teodora Kakhiani took top honours winning 15-8 over Italy’s Rosella Gregorio.

In the men’s competition, Germany took the gold medal with World Championship bronze medallist Max Hartung beating two-time Olympic gold medallist Aron Szilagyi of Hungary in the final, 15-7.

The team competitions proved equally as exciting, particularly in the epee team competitions as the French women’s team prevailed by a single point over Russia, 42-41, for the gold medal. In the semi-final, France brushed past Estonia, 45-30, while Russia beat Romania, 45-41. Romania took bronze over Estonia, 45-38.

It was another single-point win in the men’s team epee with Russia beating Ukraine, 33-32. Russia beat Germany in the semi-final, 45-30, and Ukraine defeated Czech Republic in a low-scoring semi-final match, 18-14. Similarly, in the bronze match, Czech Republic beat Germany by the narrow margin of 23-22.

In the foil, the Italian women’s team had a strong 45-31 win against Russia for the gold medal. The Italians beat Germany in the semi-final, 45-36, while Russia beat Hungary, 45-27. In the bronze match, Germany dominated their tie Hungary, winning 45-18.

In the men’s team foil event, France closely beat Russia, 45-43, in another tight match for gold. The French beat the Germans in the semi-final, 45-26, while Russia overcame Italy, 45-40. Italy earned the bronze against Germany, thanks to a win by 45-40.

In sabre event, there was another tight match for the gold medal, with the Italian women’s team beating Russia by a touch, 45-44. Russia beat Hungary in the semi-final, 45-25, and Italy had defeated France, 45-39, in the same round. France took home the bronze medal against Hungary, 45-37.

In men’s sabre, it was the reverse of the women’s results with Russia winning over Italy, 45-41, for the gold medal. The Italians had beaten Germany, 45-39, in the semi-final, with Russia beating Hungary with the same score. Hungary did have the consolation of taking bronze over Germany, 45-28.