Russia open Championships with two gold medals

The 2014 Cadet and Junior World Championships began on Wednesday, 3^rd April, in Plovdiv, Bulgaria with the preliminary stages of the Cadet Women’s Foil and Cadet Men’s Sabre events.  With each event split over two days, thirty-two fencers in each event progressed through to the round of 32 which took place on the following day.

Cadet Women’s Foil

With a total of 88 entries, Yasmin Campbell (V2D4) and Jade Clarke (V4D2) progressed through the first round and both were awarded byes through the elimination round of 128.  Emma Kurtis did not win any of her five first round fights so did not make the cut.  In the round of 64 Kalman (HUN) knocked out Campbell 15-9 and Pirk (SVK) defeated Clarke 15-12.

The semi finals saw Sabrina Massialas (USA) beat Flora Pasztor (HUN) 15-14 from 14-9 down and Marta Martyanova (RUS) defeat Claudia Borella (ITA) 15-10 after the Italian had to take an injury time-out.

In the final, Massialas edged a tight first period 3-1.  Despite the American going 7-3 up at the start of the second period, Martyanova was able to go into the second break just 7-6 down but tellingly with a yellow card warning against her.  In an electric third period, the Russian drew level and then pulled 12-9 ahead with a variety of direct attacks and attacks on preparation.  She was helped by the fact that Massialas was finding it difficult to land many of her hits.  A slight change of tactics meant that Massialas was able to close the gap to just 13-12 down with under 30 seconds left in the fight.  The Russian’s yellow card came in to play as she was called for barging (“corps a corps”) bringing the scores level and taking the fight into a priority minute.  Massialas had already survived two previous priority minutes during the day but yet again, she was unable to land her attack and Martyanova became the 2014 Cadet Women’s Foil Champion, 14-13.

GB placings: Clarke 41^st, Campbell 55^th & Kurtis 83rd.

Full results here.

Cadet Men’s Sabre

Three British men were entered into this tournament joining a field of 99.  They all made the first round cut and earned themselves byes through the first elimination stage – Will Deary (V4D1), Joshua Maxwell (V5D1) & Fraser Woodburn (V3D2).  In the round of 64, eventual quarterfinalist, D. Kim (KOR) defeated Deary 15-8, Echeverria (MEX) beat Maxwell 15-7 and Liang (USA) knocked Woodburn out 15-7.

The first semi-final saw Ivan Ilyin (RUS) beat teammate Konstantin Lokhanov 15-14 in a highly tactical affair.  Marios Giakoumatos (GRE) overcame Karol Metryka (USA) 15-7 in a fight where the Greek fencer demonstrated remarkable distance control and some powerful attacking sabre fencing.

In the final, the two left-handers immediately went toe-to-toe with Ilyin heading into the break with a slender 8-7 lead.  Taking the fight to Giakoumatos, Ilyin pulled away with some strong attacking fencing of his own and led 10-8 when the Greek fencer was shown a yellow card for starting too early.  This seemed to rattle him and Ilyin pulled further ahead to lead 14-10.  With nothing to lose, Giakoumatos started to attack each time the fight was restarted.  Showing a great deal of leniency, the Bulgarian referee, Vasil Milenchev, allowed one more early start from the Greek fencer despite him already being on a yellow card.  Giakoumatos pulled back to just 14-13 down when another early start forced the referee to reach for the red card and award Ilyin the Championship winning hit.

GB placings: Maxwell 36^th, Deary 39^th & Woodburn 47^th.

Full results here.

Two more World Champions will be crowned tomorrow with individual events concluding in Cadet Men’s and Women’s Epee.