RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, April 18, 2024 – China’s Qimiao Pan and Romania’s Vlad Covaliu won gold medals in junior women’s and men’s sabre at the 2024 Riyadh Junior and Cadet Fencing World Championships. Today’s competitions, on the seventh day of 18 individual and team events taking place from April 12 to 20, included 132 women and 156 men and are being held at the King Saud University Sports Arena.
Pan faced Aleksandra Mikhailova (AIN) in the final bout of junior women’s individual sabre, winning with a 15-11 score. In the semifinal, Mikhailova won against France’s Alejandra Manga, 15-10, while Pan defeated Uzbekistan’s Luisa Fernanda Herrera Lara, 15-12.
“I’m so excited, it’s like a dream come true”, said Pan. “I’ve been extremely nervous today because in addition to the junior event today I need to prepare for the cadet sabre event tomorrow. My most difficult bout today was when I fenced the Australian girl in the 32. I used to lose to her; I was taking the lead and then she came back, but I overcame the difficult moment and won. Now I have to fence cadet tomorrow and then junior team the next day, something I’ve never experienced—it’s like everything is happening in slow motion.”
Covaliu faced Pavel Graudyn (AIN) in the final bout of junior men’s individual sabre, winning with a 15-14 score. In the semifinal round, Graudyn won against USA’s William Morrill, 15-10, while Covaliu defeated Spain’s Santiago Madrigal, 15-6.
“It’s an amazing feeling to be a world champion, and I can only be grateful for all the work that has been put into this medal”, said Covaliu. “It was a tough day, and through the competition I got better and better and my fencing improved from bout-to-bout. The final was my most difficult bout because it was only one point difference to win and I’m so happy I was able to score it. This achievement means there is a future in senior fencing for me, and I think I made my dad proud today.”
Final rankings in junior women’s sabre included Qimiao Pan (CHN, gold), Aleksandra Mikhailova (AIN), Luisa Fernanda Herrera Lara (UZB, bronze), Alejandra Manga (FRA, bronze), Magda Skarbonkiewicz (USA), Alexandra Kuvaeva (GEO), Anna Spiesz (HUN) and Amalia Stan (ROU).
Final rankings in junior men’s sabre rankings included Vlad Covaliu (ROU, gold), Pavel Graudyn (AIN, silver), Santiago Madrigal (ESP, bronze), William Morrill (USA, bronze), In Park (KOR), Remi Garrigue (FRA), Ilia Kostiukov (AIN) and Cody Walter Ji (USA).
Complete and official results for the event may be found on the FIE website. For more exciting world fencing news and features, check out the YouTube FIE Fencing Channel.