Senior Women’s Foil: Eximbank World Cup begins in Budapest
Eximbank World Cup in Women’s foil discipline began on March 25 in Budapest at the Sports Centre, in Budapest. This event has been organized by the Fédération Hongroise d’Escrime, the Hungarian Fencing Federation (HFF) with approval from the International
Fencing Federation (FIE) under the A-grade category. It will feature both the Senior Women’s foil individual and team events from March 25 to 27.
A total of 29 countries have participated in the Women’s foil individuals with a total of 171 participants, divided into 23 pools. The first 16 and the 23rd pool comprises of seven individuals whereas pools 17-22 have been accommodated with six
fencers. The Women’s foil Individual World Cup will be held from March 25 to 26.
The first day will feature the pool rounds followed by the preliminary direct elimination Tableau 128 round. The next day will begin with the top-64 fencers and end up with the final round of the individual competition.
In the top-32, the 16 females with an automatic bye will also add in to face-off with the qualifiers from the previous rounds. The fencers with a direct entry to the Top-32 include three Italians Valentina Vezzali, Elisa Di Francisca and Arianna Errigo;
three Russians Eugyenia Lamonova, Aida Shanayeva and Julia Birioukova; two Koreans Hyun Hee Nam and Hee Sook Jeon; two French Corinne Maitrejean and Astrid Guyart; a Polish Sylwia Gruchala; German Katja Waechter; a Tunisian Ines Boubakri and a Hungarian Aida
Mohamed.
The Women’s foil team event will be held on March 27 at the same venue with each team comprising of four members, representing their native country. Three will be the active players whereas one shall be a substitute.
The experienced and challenging Aida Mohamed from Hungary will be defending her former foil individuals World Cup title in her host country this year.
As compared to last year, the participation of individual Women fencers has noticeably risen from 49 to 171. It has also enlightened the fact that the event status has internationally elevated, with a previous enlisting of 8 countries to the current 29.
Many of the World’s top female athletes have taken part in this event namely Italy’s Vezzali, Japan’s Shiho Nishioka, Michiko Ichikawa who was last year’s runner-up, Hungary’s Sarolta Nattan and the former winner Mohamed.
Last year, Romania’s fencer Maria Udrea took home the bronze medal followed by a 16th position by Ioana-Adriana Dumitru. However, it is disappointing to find that this time there were no participants from Romania.
Other than the Budapest Women’s foil World Cup, another World Cup in Women’s epee discipline is to start on March 25, simultaneously in Leipzig, Germany.
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