Hungary and Russia storm to Epee gold

On the penultimate day of the Championships the Junior Men’s and Women’s Epee teams took to the field of play.

Junior Women’s Epee Team

The thirty teams competing in this event did not include one from Great Britain.  In the semi-final the USA beat the number one seeds, Hungary, 45-29 as Russia overcame a tough Polish team, 45-40.

In the bronze medal match Hungary (Bohus, Felker, Kun with Siklosi as reserve) faced Poland (Pytka, Zagala, Zamachowska with Swatowska in reserve) and fell, 14-5 behind after three matches.  From there, a net gain of just one hit sent the Hungarians into the seventh leg trailing 30-22.  Swatowska came on for Poland taking them to 35-26 and despite good performances from the Hungarian reserve, Siklosi and their anchor, Bohus, Poland took the bronze medal 45-39.

In the gold medal match Russia (Martynyuk, Khrapina V., Kuzmenkova with Khrapina D.) took on the USA (Sirico, Van Brummen, Van Loon with Speta as reserve) and the Americans started with a 5-1 victory but by the end of the third the Russians had worked hard to take the lead 11-10.  They built on that and by the end of the sixth leg they were 23-17 ahead.  With the USA team having to chase, the Russians ran away with the World Championship title, 45-33.

Full results here.

Junior Men’s Epee Team

Great Britain (Beaumont, Curran-Jones, Marsh & Sanchez-Lethem) was one of 35 teams to take part in this event.  Having progressed through the incomplete round of 64, they beat Kazakhstan 45-35 to progress to the round of 16.  There, they had a very close match with the number two seeds, Poland.  They were just 30-29 down going into the last fight but the Polish team scored fifteen hits to six to win 45-35.

Hungary beat Korea 36-30 in the first semi-final while Spain took out Israel 45-43 in a close second semi-final.

The bronze medal match between Israel (Bogdanov, Freilich, Pozdnyakov with Vinnivky in reserve) and Korea (Jeong, Jung and Ma) was marred by a 25-minute technical break.  It was also a match that featured no less than six legs of non-combativity.  Korea had pulled out to an early 10-6 lead so Israel sought to contain the deficit.  Though, Israel’s substitute (Vinnicky) closed the gap to 21-18 down, Freilich had to chase and Jung took Korea to the bronze medal, 36-22.

Hungary (Banyai, Berta, Hamar with Cho Taeun as reserve) faced Spain (Ibanez, Pereira, Sanchez Rodriguez with Fabregat as reserve) in an electric gold medal match.  The Hungarians came out with great purpose and in no time at all secured a 14-5 lead after three bouts.  They slowed the match down forcing the Spanish team to chase.  By the end of the sixth bout Hungary led 30-12.  The Spanish substitute came on in the eighth leg and put in a good leg but the Hungarian team completed a dominant display, 45-23 to take the World Championship title.

Full results here.

The final day of the Championships will see team events in Men’s Foil and Women’s sabre.