Volpi wins women’s foil gold at 2018 Fencing World Championships

After winning a silver medal at last year’s Leipzig Fencing World Championships, Volpi went one better this time around by defeating France’s Ysaora Thibus in the Final.

The gold medal on this occasion was well deserved after an impressive run in the tournament. Victories over The Philippines’ Samantha Kyle Catantan (15-4), Russia’s Adelina Zagidullina (15-6) and Ukraine’s Kateryna Chentsova (15-2) brought the Italian foilist to the quarter-finals and a meeting with her teammate, Camilla Mancini. Kolpi continued her fine form winning 15-9 which she then carried into the semi-finals by beating Tunisia’s Ines Boubakri, the world number four, 15-7.

The Final against Thibus, the world number six, was always going to be a tougher proposition and so it proved, but Volpi came through thanks to a 15-12 scoreline to take the gold.

Thibus also had a very strong string of performances to make the Final, narrowly defeating Olympic gold medallist and two-time world champion Russian Inna Deriglazova – who won this event in 2016 and 2017 – in the quarter-finals, 15-14, before enjoying a crushing 15-2 win over Italian two-time world champion and Olympic silver medallist Arianna Errigo in the semi-finals.

Held at the Wuxi Sports Center Gym in Wuxi, in Janguan province, China, a total of twelve events are being fenced over nine days of the World Championships tournament which finishes on 27 July. These include both the individual and team competitions for men and women in epee, foil and sabre.