Rome 2017: Italy win two team titles

Wheelchair fencers Beatrice Vio and Edoardo Giordan inspire double gold for the host nation. 12 Nov 2017
Imagen
Four male wheelchair fencers pose with their swords

The Italian men's foil team secured the gold at the 2017 IWAS Wheelchair Fancing World Championships in Rome

ⒸAugusto Bizzi
By Mike Stuart

Victory for Italy in both the women’s foil and men’s sabre team events delighted the home crowd on Saturday (11 November), the penultimate day of the International Wheelchair and Amputee (IWAS) Wheelchair Fencing World Championships in Rome.

The 2017 IWAS Wheelchair Fencing World Championships are being streamed live on Raisport.

Led by newly reinstated foil category B world champion Beatrice Vio, Italy faced Russia in the women’s team foil gold medal match.

Vio and teammates Loredana Trigilia and Andrea Mogos looked focused throughout the encouter, building a comfortable lead early on. When it fell to World No.1 Vio to seal the title, she did not disappoint, duly defeating Evgeniya Sycheva* to earn a 45-23 win overall.

Russia was again the opponents as Italy reached the final of the men’s sabre team event. The Italian line-up featured newly crowned men’s sabre category B world champion Alessio Sarri, however it was teammate Edoardo Giordan that shone for the hosts.

Italy fell behind in the early bouts but Giordan turned things around with a 10-0 victory over Albert Kamalov*. The home team managed to hold the lead into the final round, where Giordan faced Maxim Shaburov*. Shaburov is in top form, having won both the sabre and category A individual titles in Rome, but Giordan proved more than a match for the Russian. A 5-5 draw between the pair sealed a 45-40 victory for Italy, adding to the men’s foil team title they won on Friday.

In the men’s individual foil category C gold medal match, Russia’s Alexander Logutenko* defended his world title by defeating South Korea’s Chunhee Park. Park was a surprise finalist having beaten Ukraine’s World No.1 and new epee category C world champion 15-4 in the semi-final. The South Korean came close to causing another upset against Lugotenko, but the number one seed showed his strength to win 15-13.

Russia’s Ksenia Ovsyannikova* earned a second gold medal of the tournament in the women’s category C epee event. The decider was a repeat of the previous day’s foil final, with Germany’s Ulrike Lotz-Lange again unable to match Ovsyannikova. The Russian never looked troubled as she fenced to a 15-8 victory.

The IWAS Wheelchair Fencing World Championships head into the final day on Sunday (12 November) when the men’s epee and women’s sabre team competitions will bring the event to a close.

Complete and live results are available online.

 

*Editor’s note: The International Paralympic Committee suspended the Russian Paralympic Committee on 7 August 2016 for its inability to fulfil its IPC membership responsibilities and obligations, in particular its obligation to comply with the IPC Anti-Doping Code and the World Anti-Doping Code (to which it is also a signatory). As a result of the suspension, Russian athletes cannot enter IPC sanctioned events or competitions, including the Paralympic Games.

 

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