Russia claim half of team gold medals at European Fencing Championships in Düsseldorf

They retained their crown in the women’s team sabre and also took the top honours in the women’s foil and men’s épée, whilst there was also success for hosts Germany, Poland and France.

The first success for Russia came as they retained their women’s team sabre title. In dping so, two of the Russian team – Sofia Pozdniakova and Sofya Velikaya – won their second titles in succession, having been joined by new team mates Olga Nikitina and Yana Egorian, with the latter and Velikaya also being part of the Rio 2016 Olympic gold medal-winning team.

They cruised to the crown, winning three of their four bouts by more than 10 points, the closest encounter being with Italy in the semi-final, which they won 45-39. Russia beat Hungary 45-34 in the final, earning Velikaya some of a consolation after her disappointment in the individual competition.

France earned the bronze medal after beating Italy 45-42 in the third-place playoff. Top seeds France won the World Championships last season and have won four of the five World Cup events this season. They came into the event as strong favourites but the young Hungarian team proved to be tough opponents in the semi-final. Hungary progressed 45-40, demoting France to the bronze medal play off.

Russia then claimed their fourth title and their third in the team events as they won both gold medals in the women’s foil and the men’s épée.

The 2017 and 2018 champions in the épée had to fight hard to retain their crown, winning their semi-final and final by one-point margins, defeating Hungary 24-23 in the last four, before narrowly beating Denmark 31-30 in the final.

It is a second successive European title for the Russian team, with the same four members who triumphed in Novi Sad in 2018 retained to compete again. Sergey Bida earned his second team épée title, while Nikita Glazkov, Sergey Khodos and Pavel Sukhov completed a hat-trick having also been part of the victorious squad from Tbilisi two years ago.

Denmark’s run to the final came as something of a surprise as they beat the more-fancied Ukraine and Switzerland teams to reach the semis, where they faced another surprise package, Estonia, who knocked out France. A 40-32 win put the Danes into the final, where although they lost they earned their country’s first team medal at European level.
Hungary won bronze, beating Estonia 36-25.

In contrast to the close fought nature their male counterparts had to negotiate, Russia’s women’s foil team cruised their way to the title with a double-figure margin of victory in all three matches.

After receiving a bye for the first round, they thrashed Poland 45-24, beat Italy 44-32 and secured an impressive 45-32 victory over France in the final.
The final saw Russia easing to a 9-7 lead after three legs of the nine-leg match and opened that lead up to 27-22 after three more, as their victory never looked in doubt.
Italy, the 2018 champions, took bronze this time, beating hosts Germany 45-36.

In the other team finals, France took gold in the men’s foil as Maxime Pauty, Erwann Le Pechoux, Julien Mertine and Enzo Lefort regained the title won by France in Tbilisi 2017.
Le Pechoux and Lefort – a semi-finalist in the singles this year – were part of that squad, as well as the team which won silver at the Rio 2016 Olympics, and they used their experience to comfortably beat home favourites Germany 45-26.

France were in excellent form throughout the Championships and won all four of their bouts with ease, including a semi-final crushing of Russia, 45-29.

Top seeds Italy won the bronze medal beating Russia 45-36, this after receiving a bye through the first round before beating Ukraine comfortably 45-28 to make the semi-finals.

In contrast, their semi-final opponents Germany had to battle past Spain 45-38 and Poland 45-39 to get to the top four. Germany had a great start in the semi-final against the Italians and delighted the home crowd by seeing it through to win 45-40.

There was better luck for the hosts with victory in the men’s team sabre, whilst Poland emerged victorious in the women’s team épée.

Germany, seeded fourth, claimed their first European title at the 2019 edition as they beat Hungary in the final, after Italy claimed the bronze medal by beating Romania in the third place playoff.

Following a bye through the first round, Germany beat France 45-40 to set up a mouth-watering semi-final tie with top seeds Italy. The Germans led 15-6 after the third leg but a typically strong comeback put the Italians 30-28 up with three legs remaining. However Germany fought back but trailed 39-40 going into the anchor leg before a great fight followed which saw Benedikt Wagner take the host nations though to the final, 45-42.

In the other half of the draw, sixth seeds Romania took third seeds Russia out in the quarter-finals but then lost to Hungary, the number two seeds, for a place in the final.

The final began with a very vociferous home crowd cheering their team onto the piste but Hungary made the much better start to quieten them. They led 15-6 at the beginning of the fourth leg, however Germany rallied with strong performances from Matyas Szabo and Max Hartung.

Szabo and Hartung reeled in the Hungarian team in and handed over a 40-34 lead to their anchor, Wagner.Hungary’s double-Olympic Champion Áron Szilágyi came on to face him but Wagner and Germany were not to be outdone, taking the gold and the European title 45-43.
Italy eased into the lead in the bronze medal playoff against Romania and put in a solid and professional display to take the title 45-35.

In the women’s team épée, Poland came from behind to defeat Russia in the final after Italy beat France in the bronze medal playoff.

Having won the first World Cup event at the start of Tokyo 2020 qualification, Poland were the top seeded European team, and eased through their semi-final with France 45-37. In the other half of the draw, Russia advanced to the final with a narrow 36-35 win over Italy.
The final was a typically tight affair; Lyubov Shutova came on to start for Russia and received a passivity penalty before levelling at 2-2. Passivity was also called in the second match, with Magdalena Piekarska of Poland the culprit.

With the scores level in the third, both teams were penalised again and a second “P-red” card was then given to both teams, but Russia were able to get into the lead, putting all the pressure on Poland to score a hit, as any further penalty would have resulted in the match ending in their defeat.

Poland were able to level the score, before Ewa Trzebińska struck to take Poland to a dramatic 27-26 win and the European title.

In the bronze medal match Italy pulled away from France in the fourth leg and never looked back, taking it 45-38.

After a hugely successful European Championships, the focus now turns to the final major event of the season, the World Championships, which are due to start in Budapest, Romania on 15 July.