SHANGHAI, China, May 17-19, 2024 – Italy’s Martina Favaretto and Hong Kong, China’s Olympic champion Ka Long Cheung won gold medals at the 2024 Shanghai Women’s and Men’s Foil Grand Prix. The event took place in the Jing’an Gymnasium with 163 women and 190 men participating in the competition.
Favaretto faced Poland’s Julia Walczyk-Klimaszyk in the final bout of women’s individual foil, winning with a 15-9 score. In the semifinal round, Walczyk-Klimaszyk won against USA’s Olympic champion Lee Kiefer, 15-12, while Favaretto defeated France’s Pauline Ranvier, 15-9. Of note, in the table of 16, Walczyk-Klimaszyk beat Italy’s two-time world champion Alice Volpi, 15-14, and in the table of 32, Ranvier won against Italy’s two-time world champion Arianna Errigo, 15-11.
Cheung faced USA’s Gerek Meinhardt in the final bout of men’s individual foil, winning with a 15-7 score. In the semifinal round, Meinhardt won against Japan’s Kazuki Iimura, 15-8, while Cheung defeated Egypt’s Mohamed Hamza, 15-11. Of note, in the quarterfinals, Cheung beat Italy’s world champion Alessio Foconi, 15-2, and in the table of 16, Foconi won against teammate and world champion Tommaso Marini, 15-8, China's Ziwei Mo defeated France’s two-time world champion Enzo Lefort, 15-8. In the table of 32, Iimura beat USA’s world champion Miles Chamley-Watson, 15-14.
Final rankings in women’s individual foil included Martina Favaretto (ITA, gold), Julia Walczyk-Klimaszyk (POL, silver), Lee Kiefer (USA, bronze), Pauline Ranvier (FRA, bronze), Martina Batini (ITA), Anne Sauer (GER), Qingyuan Chen (CHN) and Jessica Zi Jia Guo (CAN).
Final rankings in men’s individual foil included Ka Long Cheung (HKG, gold), Gerek Meinhardt (USA, silver), Mohamed Hamza (EGY, bronze), Kazuki Iimura (JPN, bronze), Guillaume Bianchi (ITA), Ziwei Mo (CHN), Alexander Choupenitch (CZE) and Alessio Foconi (ITA).
Complete and official results for this 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.