Fifth European Cadet Fencing Championship 2011 concludes – Fencing Update
The Men’s foil and Women’s sabre team events took place at Klagenfurt, Austria on the final day of the Fifth European Cadet Championship 2011 on March 5.
Germany, Hungary, Russia, France, Poland and Italy participated in the Men’s foil event comprising of 64 participants. However, only Italy, Russia, Hungary and France managed to make it to the top 4 in the Men’s foil team event.
The Russians put in a tremendous performance as they beat Germany 45-44 in the quarter-final round to advance into the semi-finals. France, Hungary and Italy also managed to put some brilliant efforts in and reach the semi-final round.
Italy put in a hard fought effort as they advanced to the finals beating Hungary in the extra minute time period as both were tied at 25 points each. The French were disappointed as they lost to the Russians with a final score of 40-45 points.
Ilya Degtyarev, Anton Sekov, Alexander Pivovarov and Alexey Valerov made up the Russian team that was to face Italy in the final round.
Italy’s team was made up of Alessandro Bertolazzi, Michele Del Macchia, Damiano Rosatelli and Fracesco Marotta.
It was the Russian team that dominated in the final round as they beat the Italian Men’s team by a score of 45-42.
France managed to secure the bronze medal for third place as they beat the Hungarians.
40 female fencers took part in the team competions of Women’s sabre with four members in each team representing 10 countries.
The top 8 was made up of Italy, Russian, France, Hungary, Poland and Germany as they were given automatic byes. Turkey was to face Great Britain as Austria faced Ukraine for the last two qualifying spots. In the end, it was Ukraine and Great Britain that
managed to slip in to the spots.
Italy, Germany, Russia and Hungary all put in tremendous performances and easily made their way in to the semi-final of the top 4.
Hungary and Russia had a close heated match in the final qualifying match as Hungary managed to win it in the last minute 45-44. On the other side, the Italian Women’s team dominated the Germans to advance into the finals.
The Italians grabbed the gold as Martina Criscio put in a fine performance to help her team defeat the Hungarians 45-41 in the final bout.
The Italian fencers managed to secure seven gold medals with four silver and bronze. Russia grabbed two gold medals and silver and bronze each. The Austrians were disappointed not have won any medals during the competition.
As the event concluded, the Italians were happy to be on the top spot in the medals chart. It will be interesting to see how far their winning momentum can take them in the fencing calendar.
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