Foconi and Kiefer open Grand Prix campaigns with gold medals in Turin

Foconi picked his moment to claim his maiden Grand Prix win, with his surprise 15-7 victory over the world number one, USA’s Alexander Massialas, coming in front of his home support.

The 27-year-old foilist dedicated his gold medal to the victims of the recent earthquake in Umbria and now moves up nine places to number ten in the world rankings.

The bronze medals went to semi-finalists Hyogon Kim of Korea and Enzo Lefort of France who had caused another upset in the last 16 by ending the challenge of Olympic champion Daniele Garozzo of Italy.

In the women’s foil competition, Kiefer also recorded her first career Grand Prix victory by defeating compatriot Nicole Ross in the final.

After finishing runner-up to world number one, Arianna Errigo of Italy twice last season, Kiefer, who is ranked second in the world, got some sort of revenge by beating her rival in the semi-finals by a score of 15-11.

Kiefer then overcame the challenge of Ross in the gold medal match by a score of 15-8, with the other bronze medal going to Errigo’s compatriot Alice Volpi.

Turin was playing host to the first of nine Fencing Grands Prix which signals the start of the FIE’s flagship regular season competition. The FGP Series features three Grand Prix in each of the three weapons – foil, epee and sabre, and visits nine iconic cities around the world.

The event on series calendar is in Qatar, where the world’s top epeeists will contest the Doha Grand Prix on 9 to 11 December.

There was also sabre World Cup action over the weekend in Győr, Hungary which saw Sanguk Oh claim the first gold medal of his career with victory in an all-Korean final.

The 20-year-old beat four-time Asian champion Bongil Gu 15-13 in a closely fought gold medal match, improving upon his previous best performance of a bronze medal in Padua last year.

The bronze medals were shared by semi-finalists Andras Szatmari of Hungary and Bolade Apithy of France.

Apithy had earlier removed home favourite, the world number two and Rio Olympic champion Aron Szilagyi in the quarter-finals, whilst Szatmari had taken the scalp of the world number one, South Korea’s Junghwan Kim, at the table of 32 stage.

In the team event, Italy emerged victorious in the gold medal match, beating South Korea 45-40, with the bronze medal going to Russia after they edged out France 45-44.

The next sabre event on the FIE calendar is the Fencing Grand Prix in Cancun, Mexico, on 16 to 18 December.