Deriglazova and Massialas strike gold at FIE Grand Foil Prix in Turin

Deriglazova cruised to victory in the women’s foil event, whilst USA’s Alexander Massialas was pushed all the way in the men’s competition before taking the honours.

More than 300 men and women – including the world’s top-ranked foil fencers – competed in Turin over the weekend at the first of nine Grand Prix events set to take place over the coming months.

In the women’s foil competition, Deriglazova came up against Italy’s Alice Volpi in the Final, in a rematch of last summer’s women’s foil final at the World Championships in Leipzig, Germany. On that occasion it was Deriglazova who prevailed and again it was the Olympic gold medallist and two-time World Champion who came away with the spoils on this occasion by easing to a comfortable 15-9 victory.

Deriglazova had earlier narrowly beaten Italy’s Olympic silver medallist and two-time World Champion Arianna Errigo 15-14 in the semi-final, whilst Volpi progressed at the expense of teammate Valentina De Costanzo thanks to a 15-8 scoreline.

In the men’s foil event, the world number one and two squared up to each other and it was Massialas who took gold over Russia’s Timur Safin by two touches.

The 23-year-old world number one and Olympic and World Championship silver medallist had to pull out all the stops to do so, coming from behind in the second period to beat Olympic and World Championship bronze medallist Safin with a final score of 15-13.

In the semi-final, Safin defeated Italian Alessio Foconi, 15-12, while Massialas enjoyed a more comfortable passage to the gold medal match by beating France’s Enzo Lefort, 15-7. Foconi for his part had accounted for Olympic gold medallist and compatriot Daniele Garozzo in the quarter-finals, 15-10.

The next FIE Grand Prix action is this coming weekend with the men’s and women’s individual epee competitions in Doha, Qatar.