Mertine impresses on way to gold at FIE Men’s Foil World Cup in Bonn

Despite being ranked 39th in the world heading into the competition, Mertine overcame some stiff competition to win the event by beating USA’s Gerek Meinhardt in the final at the Ville de Bonn.

Earlier in the competition, the Frenchman beat Meinhardt’s compatriot and one of the favourites Alexander Massialas, 15-11 in the last 32 stage, before beating fellow countryman Erwann Le Pechoux 15-10 in the last 16.

Mertine had an easier time of things in the quarter-finals dismantling one of the host nation’s hopes, Benjamin Kleibrink 15-3, before coming through a closer semi-final against Italy’s Andrea Cassara 15-10

Meinhardt’s run to the final was equally as impressive as he beat Italian Olympic champion Daniele Garozzo in the round of eight, 15-9, before seeing off a nother Italian, Alessio Foconi, 15-12 in the other semi-final.

That was where the success ended for the American as Mertine claimed a 15-9 win in the final to take the gold.

There was some consolation for the USA as they saw off the challenge of South Korea to win the team competition. The Americans team of Nick Itkin, Race Imboden and Massialas enjoyed wins over Denmark and Germany to advance to the semi-final stage where they faced and came through their toughest test edging out Russia 45-42 in a close hard fought contest.

South Korea provided the opposition after they overcame Italy 45-37 in the second semi-final, but the USA team proved too strong in the gold medal decider, taking the contest 45-31. Russia took the bronze medal against Italy, 45-40.

The weekend’s action in Bonn was the first men’s FIE World Cup event of the 2019-2020 season, this after the women’s FIE World Cup got underway the weekend before in Tallinn, Estonia.

Here it was Romania’s Ana Maria Popescu who won the gold medal in the final of the individual event with Poland taking out the top honour in a nail-biting finish to the team event.

Popescu edged out Russia’s Violetta Kolobova 15-13 to take the gold medal, having earlier defeated China’s Sun Yiwen 15-14 in the semi-finals at the Kalev Sports Hall.
Sun was joined on the third step of the podium by compatriot Zhu Mingye, who lost 15-8 to Kolobova in the other last-four encounter.

The final of team event went down to the very last point as the Polish trio of Renata Knapik-Miazga, Aleksandra Zamachowska and Ewa Trzebińska beat Russia’s Tatyana Andryushina, Anastasia Soldatova and Kolobova by a single touch, 45-44, in the final.
In the semi-finals, Poland overcame China 39-28 as Russia defeated USA 45-29.