Italy’s Aldo Montano followed up on his victory at the Boston Fencing Grand Prix in December with gold in the individual Men’s Sabre World Cup in Padua, Italy, this weekend.
Montano, who won gold at the 2004 Athens Games, beat reigning Olympic champion Aron Szilagyi of Hungary 15-12 in the final.
The bronze medals went to Kamil Ibragimov of Russia and South Korea’s Junghwan Kim.
Hungary won the men’s team event on Sunday by beating Romania in a tight match by 45-44. The bronze medal went to Korea.
In the Women’s Sabre World Cup in the Greek capital, a similar story emerged as 2004 Olympic champion Mariel Zagunis edged out her Russian rival Sofya Velikaya by 15 touches to 11.
Third place went to Russia’s Ekaterina Dyachenko and Ibtihaj Muhammad of the United States.
In the women’s team event, Ukraine beat Russia for gold 45-44, while France defeated the United States for bronze.
photos: © Augusto Bizzi © Alexandros Michailidis