First Evening of Junior Team Fencing Action in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Feature Russia, France, Italy, Germany, and USA Earning Medals
PLOVDIV, Bulgaria, April 8, 2017—In the first day of finals in junior team competition at the 2017 Junior & Cadet World Fencing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, athletes from 30 countries competed in the Junior Men’s Team Sabre and 29 countries in Junior Women’s Team Epee. At the end of the day, new world champions from Russia and France took home the gold medals.
In Men’s Junior Team Sabre, Russian Konstantin Lokhanov, individual junior gold medallist from a few nights before, anchored his team to a 45-36 win over a spirited Italian team. The Russian team overtook Great Britain in the semi-final with a much closer final score of 45-43 before going on to the final. Italy had overtaken Germany, 45-42, to make the gold-medal match. Germany was able to prevail over Great Britain in the bronze match, edging them out 45-41.
In Junior Women’s Team epee, the final was an edge-of-your-seat, point-by-point match until the last touch, when France’s anchor, Tahe Oceane, scored an overtime toe-touch point on Italy’s Eleonora De Marchi to win, 39-38. Italy had beaten Poland 45-33 in the semi-final, and France took-out USA, 45-37. In the bronze match, USA earned the medal over Poland, 45-37, anchored by Catherine Nixon, winner of the Junior Women’s Epee silver medal earlier in the Championships.
Top-eight final countries in Junior Men’s Team Sabre included Russia (gold), Italy (silver), Germany (bronze), Great Britain, USA, Korea, Poland, and FIE (athletes fencing under the FIE flag).
In Junior Women’s Team Epee, the final eight countries included France (gold), Italy (silver), USA (bronze), Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Switzerland, and Germany.
The competition is being held on the Plovdiv International Fairgrounds, home to numerous sporting events in this ancient city. In all, 19 events will be fenced here over 10 days. Cadet fencers are younger than juniors, although for many of both groups this is the first opportunity to compete in a major world event. For some, they will also compete this July in the Senior World Fencing Championships in Leipzig, Germany. Full results from Plovdiv may be found here and full information about the Championships may be found on the official event website.