The European Championships in Montreux have been launched with the opening rounds in the men’s foil competition. After intense action, the field is down to T32 and will see a “shocker” immediately.
When matches resume on Saturday morning at 9am, the European championships will straight away live their first highlight. Alexei Cheremisinov, the best fencer in the pools and reigning world champion will square off against James-Andrew Davis. The 23-year-old Brit took the Gold at last year’s European Championships in Strasbourg.
72 fencers started the competition on Friday under the roof of the Montreux Music & Convention Centre under big heat. And hot was also the action which was followed by plenty of fellow competitors and plenty of local school kids. The host nation had two local hopefuls in contention but both failed to go beyond the pool stage despite a huge amount of cheering.
Also on Saturday, the women’s epee competition will be held with first round action taking place from 9am. The semifinals will start at 5pm with gold medal matches taking place at 6.40pm (foil) and 7.05 (epee). Athletes will compete in the final rounds in the magnificent Auditorium Stravinski, annually host to the world’s most famous
musicians at the Jazz Festival.
The day had started with the congress of the European Fencing Confederation. In the evening then there was the official opening ceremony at the “marché couvert” in a great setting and involving plenty of fencers from the next generation. Frantisek Janda, the president of the European Fencing Confederation, declared the Championships officially opened and the festivities were followed by a generous aperitif.
photo: Valeriano Di Domenico
Watch Live Stream the event through the FIE fencing channel
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