Besbes and Kweon impress by winning gold at epee Grand Prix in Doha

Besbes of Tunisia was in great form by claiming the women’s epee competition whilst Korean fencer Kweon earned his first career title in a closely fought final.

Eight-time African champion Besbes beat Russia’s Violetta Kolobova 15-8 in the gold medal match for her first Grand Prix title.

The 27 year old current world number four and 2015 world bronze medalist narrowly missed out on the medals at the Rio Games by finishing fifth, but showed she was eager to make amends and was in great form in Qatar.

She won all her matches by at least a three-point cushion, with a 15-12 quarter final success over Brazil’s Nathalie Moellhausen followed up by stepping up a gear in the 15-6 semi-final win over Poland’s Ewa Nelip ahead of the final.

For the 25-year-old 2015 European champion Kolobova, her silver medal finish meant it was her best result at a Grand Prix.

The bronze medals went to losing semi-finalists Nelip and Nuo Xu of China.

In the men’s competition, Kweon secured his first career title by defeating France’s Alexandre Bardenet 15-13 in Saturday’s final.

Having dispatched his fellow countryman and Olympic champion, Sangyoung Park, 15-12 in the quarter-finals, Kweon was made to fight equally as hard in the semi-final against a two-time world champion and current world No. 18 Nikolai Novosjolov of Estonia, eventually prevailing by a 15-13 secoreline.

With his previous best being a silver medal at the 2013 Asian championships, the win moves up Kweon to 34th in the world.

Second place also marked a career-best result from Bardenet who moves to 75th.

The bronze medals went to Novosjolov and 15th-ranked Jean-Michel Lucenay, who was a member of France’s Olympic gold-winning epee team in Rio de Janeiro.

The Grand Prix on Doha was the second stage of the nine-event Fencing Grand Prix Series, which began with the world’s top foilists in action earlier this month in Turin, Italy.

The series continues in Mexico where the world’s top sabre fencers will contest the Cancun Grand Prix on 16 to 18 December.