Kruse and Deriglazova produce golden performances at 2018 Shanghai Foil Fencing Grand Prix

Kruse successfully defended his men’s individual title from the same event of last year by beating Russia’s Timur Safin in the Final, whilst Deriglazova defeated Japan’s Karin Miyawaki in the women’s individual competition.

The event, the eighth of nine Grand Prix events in the International Fencing Federation’s 2017-2018 competition season, took place at Shanghai’s Jing‘an Sports Centre, drawing more than 325 international men’s and women’s foilists.

In the men’s foil competition, Kruse repeated his Shanghai victory from 12 months ago with a string of impressive victories.

The world number four had something of an early scare at the round of 64 stage, narrowly beating Germany’s Benjamin Kleibrink 15-14, but then went onto progress past China’s Mengkai Huang 15-7 and Korea’s Taegyu Ha 15-9 to reach the quarter-finals. Here Kruse edged past Italy’s Francesco Trani 15-13 before encountering an even closer contest in the semi-finals with another Italian, the world number seven Andrea Cassara, where Kruse prevailed by a single point margin of 15-14.

That set up an intriguing Final with Safin, and a repeat of the bronze-medal match at Rio 2016, when Kruse fell short in his bid to win Great Britain’s first Olympic fencing medal in 52 years. However on this occasion the Briton gained some revenge over the world number three and took gold thanks to another absorbing contest with Kruse winning 15-13.

Safin’s path to the Final was slightly smoother and included a 15-3 quarter-final victory over Spain’s Carlos Llavador, before removing top-ranked USA fencer Race Imboden, 15-10 in the semi-finals.

Gold for Kruse means he stays at number four in the world rankings ahead of the European Championships in Novi Sad, Serbia in June.

Speaking afterwards, his coach, Ziemek Wojciechowski, said: “These days there is a very large group of potential winners in men’s foil so to win a grand prix is particularly hard – but to win it for the second time in a row is almost unbelievable.”

In the women’s individual event, Deriglazova underlined her status as world number one with another dominant display and a gold medal success.

The Olympic gold medallist and two-time World Champion pre-competition favourite was in fine form with victories over fellow Russian’s Kristina Samsonova 15-4 and Anastasia Ivanova 12-7, before easing past Poland’s Katarzyna Lachman 15-5. A 15-10 quarter-final victory over world number six, Ines Boubakri of Tunisia was backed by a semi-final defeat of Korea’s Song Oh Chae with a 15-11 score.

That brought the meeting with Miyawaki in the final match and the Japanese fencer was no match for the Russian as Deriglazova won convincingly 15-6.

For world number 25 Miyawaki, the silver medal was the consolation of a career-best finish by reaching the gold-medal round. This came after she overcame world number two Alice Volpi of Italy in the quarter-finals, 15-13, ahead of progressing to the Final at the expense of world number eight, Eleanor Harvey of Canada in the semi-final, 15-11.

The final event of the FIE’s nine-city Grand Prix event series for the 2017-2018 season is the men’s and women’s epee being held in Cali, Colombia, this weekend from Friday 25 to Sunday 27 May.