TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, Feb. 10-12, 2023—Greece’s Despina Georgiadou won the individual gold medal at the Tashkent Women’s Sabre World Cup, and Bulgaria won the team gold. The event took place at the Yunusabad Sport Complex, with 149 individual fencers and 20 teams participating in the competition.
Georgiadou faced her teammate, Theodora Gkountoura, in the final bout of the individual sabre event, winning with a 15-10 score. In the semifinal round, Gkountoura won against USA’s Elizabeth Tartakovsky, 15-5, while Georgiadou defeated Japan’s world champion, Misaki Emura, 15-11. Of note, France’s Sara Balzer beat Ukraine’s four-time world champion, Olga Kharlan, in the round of 16, 15-13, before being eliminated by Georgiadou in the quarterfinals, 15-12.
In the women’s team sabre event, Bulgaria won against Azerbaijan in the final round, 45-40. In the semifinals, Azerbaijan defeated Hungary, 45-37, while Bulgaria beat Korea, 45-39. The bronze medal went to Korea over Hungary, 45-41.
Final rankings in women’s individual sabre included Despina Georgiadou (GRE, gold), Theodora Gkountoura (GRE, silver), Misaki Emura (JPN, bronze), Elizabeth Tartakovsky (USA, bronze), Lucia Martin-Portugues (ESP), Sara Balzer (FRA), Margaux Rifkiss (FRA) and Sylwia Matuszak (POL).
Final rankings in women’s team sabre included Bulgaria (gold), Azerbaijan (silver), Korea (bronze), Hungary, USA, France, Poland and Italy.
Complete and official results for the event may be found here on the FIE web site. For more exciting world fencing news and features, check out the YouTube FIE Fencing Channel.