Alexey Yakimenko clinch gold medal in Sabre discipline at 30th Villa de Madrid 2011: Fencing Recap
The 30th Villa de Madrid 2011 was held from May 13-15, at the Centro Deportivo Municipal Barajas in Madrid, Spain. This World Cup included both individual and team competition in Men’s Sabre discipline.
This tournament was hosted by the Spanish Fencing body at the Barajas Sports Centre for three days. The first day included only the preliminary pool rounds of individual event whereas the second day continued with the Pre-Qualifying rounds of the Top-64
Direct Elimination Tableau and forth. On May 15, the team competition was finalised.
In the individual event, Russia’s Alexey Yakimenko ended up first out of the total 196 participant fencers, after beating down the French sabreur, Julien Pillet, by 15-10 in the final played on May 14.
Pillet sealed the silver medal followed by a bronze-medal share between a Korean and an Italian, Young Woo Won and Aldo Montano respectively.
In the team event, a total of 20 teams had taken part in the World Cup out of which Germany made a last minute entry into the competition that was a worthwhile appearance. The German team won the top place in the Madrid competition after defeating Belarus
in the final round by 45-39.
The quartet comprised of Bjorn Hubner, Max Hartung, Benedict Wagner Beisheim and the World Number One men sabreur Nicolas Limbach.
The German national coach Vilmos Szabo was happy with the team’s performance and said, "That was sensational. They have already indicated several times what they can do. This was now great cinema.”
After this achievement, the German team has now secured third place in the world ranking below Italy at first and Russia at second. This victory was risked with the absence of Szabo’s best athletes in the men’s sabre individual World Cup, Nicolas Limbach,
however it paid off well. Limbach did not appear in the individuals due to his injury.
The coach said that it was a mutual consent of not letting Nicolas take part in the individual championship due to the risk that his old wound may worsen, not allowing him to continue. Szabo said that in view of the upcoming Olympics, it was a better option
to avail. However, with just 14 days left for the German Championship that will follow a Grand Prix in Warsaw a week later, the German coach believes that Limbach is expected to be found competing in these events.
The team event concluded with the second place with Belarus, third place with Italy and fourth place with the Russian team.
Meanwhile, it was a relief for Limbach that despite his absence in the Individual's event of the 2011 Villa de Madrid, he manages to retain his top seed in the world ranking. The World’s Number Two Alexey Yakimenko of Russia tried to take full advantage
to strengthen his position and moved up within 12 points of the top ranking.
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