World Cup Round Up: Padua Men’s Sabre & La Coruna Men’s Foil World Cups

Davis Finishes 16^th at La Coruna Men’s Foil World Cup

It was the men on show this weekend fencing sabre in Padua and foil in La Coruna at World Cup events.

Men’s Sabre World Cup – Padua

The weekend’s action started with the men’s sabre World Cup in Padua, Italy.  A twelve strong British team took part in the individual event and the going was tough.  Only half of the fencers made it through the first round of poules with Alex Crutchett (V2D4), Anthony Crutchett (V1D5), Hutchison (V2D4), Rock (V2D4), Sancroft (V1D5) and Ward (V1D5) not making the cut.  Clarke, Gann, Honeybone, Mottershead, O’Connell and Rahimi made the cut but were all knocked out in the first preliminary knockout losing to Xu (CHN) 15-9, Dolniceanu (ROU) 15-14, Wang (CHN) 15-11, Koniusz (POL) 15-11, Tsap (UKR) 15-10 and Lamboley (FRA) 15-6 respectively.  Limbach (GER) won the event from Yakimenko (RUS), Gu (KOR) and Occhiuzzi (ITA).

In the team event the GB team finished 13^th.  They beat Iran 45-42 in the round of 32 setting up a match against the world number 4 team, Belarus.  They were no match for the Belarussians who comfortably won 45-30.  In the 9-16 placing matches GB lost 45-31 to Canada but then beat Hong Kong 45-30 and Spain 45-44 to finish 13^th.  In the final match Honeybone came back from 43-41 and 44-43 down in an impressive display.  Commenting on this match, Head Sabre Coach, Jon Salfield said; “Honeybone was on fire!”  The event was won by Germany who comfortably beat Belarus 45-26.  Russia easily beat France 45-28 to take the bronze medal.

GB individual placings:  Honeybone 102^nd, Clarke 106^th, O’Connell 107^th, Gann 122^nd, Mottershead 128^th, Rahimi 131^st, Alex Crutchett 135^th, Rocks 146^th, Hutchison 150^th, Ward 159^th, Sancroft 161^st, Anthony Crutchet 171^st.

Men’s Foil World Cup – La Coruna

The international men’s foil circuit continued this weekend in Deportivo La Coruna where ten British fencers entered a field of 191.  Peggs failed to make the cut after the first round poules but everyone else did; Cook (V1D4), Davis (V4D2), Jefferies (V3D2), Kenber (V3D3) ,Kruse (V4D2), Mepstead (V3D2), Rattan (V1D4), Rosowsky (V4D2) and Tofalides (V1D4) .  In the first preliminary knockout fights Cook lost 15-9 to Choupenitch (CZE), Jefferies lost 15-10 to Goldstein (USA), Mepstead lost 15-9 to Drobyshev (RUS), Rattan lost 15-12 to Heo (KOR) and Tofalides lost to Glonek (POL) 15-8.  However Davis beat Ngan (HKG) 15-2, Kenber beat Sayyad Ghanbari (IRI) 15-8, Kruse beat Getz (USA) 15-9 and Rosowsky beat Elkassa (USA) 15-8.  Only two GB fencers made it through to the second day though with Kenber losing 15-11 to Hinteseer (AUT) and Roswosky losing 15-10 to Simon (FRA).  Both Davis and Kruse made it through beating Zherebchenko (RUS) 15-13 and Huang (CHN) 15-9 respectively.  Kruse faced Joppich (GER) in the round of 64 and lost 15-11.  Davis faced another German in Bachmann, ranked 16^th in the World.  A fantastic 15-10 victory followed setting up a fight against Fujino (JPN) for a place in the top 16.  Davis delivered, beating his Japanese opponent 15-9.  Another Japanese fencer, world number 18, Ota, was next and this proved a step to far with Davis losing 15-8.  This impressive result from Davis sets up an intriguing battle amongst the GB squad for a place in the A team.  The event was won by Cassara (ITA) – his second victory in a row – from Le Pechoux (FRA), Aspromonte (ITA) and Choi (KOR).

In the team event GB finished 10^th.  They were drawn against the USA in the round of 16 losing 45-33.  In the 9-16 placing matches they beat Iran 44-36, then Austria 45-34 but in their final match lost to Poland 44-38.  The event was won by Germany who beat France 45-32 to take the gold medal.  The bronze medal was won by Korea who beat the USA team 45-42.

GB individual placings:  Davis 16^th, Kruse 54^th, Rosowsky 71^st, Kenber 80^th, Mepstead 111^th, Jefferies 114^th, Cook 151^st, Tofalides 153^rd, Rattan 156^th, Peggs 175^th.

Next up…

All eyes turn to the ladies next weekend with an Epee Grand Prix in Budapest, a Foil Grand Prix in Budapest and a Sabre World Cup in London.

To download this report as a pdf click here