There were few surprises on the third day of the fencing competition at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games, as both sabreur Alina Moseyko (RUS) and foilist Andrzej Rzadkowski (POL) showed their quality to win gold and add to their respective cadet world championship titles.
In the women's sabre, world number one Moseyko easily powered through the rounds from the morning's pool to her last bout, where she defeated number six seed Chiara Crovari (ITA) 15-10.
“I'm a bit disappointed because I've been so close to take the gold, but I'm happy with my silver medal anyway,” Crovari said.
“Moseyko had already eliminated me at the cadet world champs and still I haven't understood how to beat her. This time I got a bit closer though.”
Number seven seed Petra Zahonyi (HUN) won an unexpected bronze medal after beating cadet world championships bronze medallist Misaki Emura (JPN) 15-13.
“I have a medal from my first Olympic Games and this is so good and means so much,” Zahonyi said.
“I wasn't expecting anything because I knew anything could happen. I trained so much all summer, it was worth it.”
In the men's foil event, Rzadkowski took the Youth Olympic title having dominated the tournament, eventually finishing off with a confident 15-13 win over fifth seed CHOI Chun Yin Ryan (HKG).
“CHOI is very aggressive, pushing forward all the time,” Rzadkowski said. “I hate this style.”
The home crowd supported CHOI throughout the tournament and cheered for him as he struggled against the competition favourite.
“I like it when the crowd is shouting for my enemy,” said Rzadkowski. “No pressure about being the world champion. I just fence because it's fun.”
Enguerand Roger (FRA) battled back after a dreadful start to his bronze medal bout, after which he found himself 5-0 down, to seal a 15-11 victory over SEO Myeong Cheol (KOR).
“Two competitions, two times third,” said Roger. “Good that I had a medal, but I prefer gold.”
Roger had led Choi throughout their semi-final but the Frenchman lost 15-14 on the sudden death point.
“I'm sad, it was very difficult for me after the semi-final,” Roger said. “I enjoyed it when I was leading 14-8. In my head I said, 'Yes, I'm in the final’ and because of that I lost. When I was leading at 14, I was too cautious for the last point.”
President of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, watched the men's foil and women's sabre gold medal bouts – having won gold at the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games in the men's team foil event (he was also the world champion in foil a year later).
On Wednesday, the mixed continental team event wraps up fencing at the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games.
Follow the results here: http://www.nanjing2014.org/en/en_sports/GamestimeResults.htm