Alexey Yakimenko bags first gold medal victory for Russia at 2011 European Fencing Championships
The eight-time European Champion, Alexey Yakimenko, brought the first gold medal for Russian at the 2011 European Fencing Championships, Sheffield on the fourth day of the championships. He won the gold medal in the Men’s Sabre Individual contest on July
16.
The Russian Fencers have won three medals in the 2011 European Championships, including one gold in Sabre Men’s Individual, two bronze in the Men’s and Women’s Foil segments. A total of 60 male sabre fencers participated in the Men’s Sabre Individual contest.
Three Sabre fencers, namely Benjamin Reshetnikov, Alexey Yakimenko and Nikolai Kovalev, participated in the competition at the same time in their respective grids in the pool matches. Alexey passed his pool matches’ bouts successfully with no loss. It gave
him an automatic bye to the table of 64 and began his direct elimination round with the table of 32.
The first opponent, whom Alexey faced in the table of 32, was Great Britain’s James Honeybone. Alexey defeated him with a lead of five points with a 15-10 score-line and advanced to the next table. The next contender for Alexey was Nikolay Kovalev from Russia,
who was better than the previous compatriot, where he beat Kovalev with a score of 15-9 and qualified for the quarter-final bouts. German Nicolas Limbach, who was previously on the top of the Sabre World Rankings, was there to face Alexey in the quarter-final
table.
Alexey and Nicolas had a tough bout as they seized the score on 14-14 after the nine minutes finished. The referee gave an additional one minute for the qualifier hit that was amazingly scored by Alexey and took him to the semi-final round.
In the semi-final, Alexey faced another German, Max Hartung. Alexey defeated him with a 15-10 score-line and advanced to the final, bout which was the decider bout. Frenchman Apithy Bolado, who faced Alexey in the final, fought very well and after nine minutes
were levelled at a score of 14-14. But once again, Alexey was the lucky fencer to hit the deciding touch to his opponent within additional one minute and got the title of the day. The victory may also give him the top place in the World Rankings.
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