Inspired performance sees Svetlana Tripapina win Women’s Foil World Cup Gold in Gdansk

Having enjoyed an incredible run – which included beating Olympic bronze medallist Lee Kiefer of USA 15-13 in the semi-final – the Russian foilist delivered another stunning showing in the Final, beating France’s Pauline Ranvier 15-5 to record the best win of her career to date.

Staged at the Gdansk School of Foil, nearly 200 women and 19 national teams competed in the latest round of FIE World Cup fencing competition.

Ranvier for her part also enjoyed a useful tournament, which included beating Olympic gold medallist Inna Deriglazova in the table of 16 round by a single touch, 15-14.

The French foilist faced her teammate, Astrid Guyart, in the semi-finals, overcoming that challenge 15-7 before falling to Tripapina in the gold medal encounter.

In the women’s team event, old rivals France and Italy squared up to each other in the final, and it was the latter who prevailed to take gold, winning a single touch, 45-44.

France had earlier seen off Russia in the semi-final, winning 45-33, while Italy progressed at the expense of USA by only two points with a final score of 45-43.

In the bronze match, Russia prevailed over USA 45-35.

There was also men’s sabre action in Padua, Italy, over the weekend which saw Hungary’s Andras Szatmari and Korea’s men’s sabre team take gold at the Luxardo Trophy Men’s Sabre World Cup.

Nearly 200 fencers and more than 20 international teams competed over three days at the northern Italian city’s Kioene Arena which saw many of the world’s top-ranked sabre fencers in action.

Szatmari came into the event ranked 18th in the world which made his 15-12 victory over fifth-seed Mojtaba Abedini of Iran in the final all the more memorable.

The 24-year-old Hungarian had already raised many eyebrows in the lead-up to the semi-finals where he took out Korea’s Junghwan Kim 15-8 to make the gold medal match.

Abedini also faced Korean opposition in his way in the semi-finals in the shape of Sanguk Oh, however the Iranian won a very close battle by the slightest of margins of a single touch 15-14, to make the final.

Until that point, Oh had been in strong form, including despatching Hungary’s champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist Aron Szilagyi 15-11 in the quarter-finals.

There was some consolation for Korea as their men’s sabre team scored a very tight victory in the gold-medal round against home-favourites Italy 45-44.

For Italy, the Final came as one hurdle too many after they had encountered two tough matches in a row. Having beaten Hungary by only two points 45-43 in the semi-finals, the Koreans just edged their hosts by a single point to take gold.

In the bronze medal match, Hungary beat Iran 45-32.