Gold medal for Oh and Velikaya at FIE Sabre Grand Prix in Moscow

Oh overcame Italy’s Luca Curatoli in the men’s individual competition final, whilst Velikaya beat against Hungary’s Anna Marton in the women’s equivalent.

The weekend’s Grand Prix, the seventh of the FIE’s nine-event series of the 2017-2018 competition season, took place at Moscow’s ‘Ice Palace’ where more than 300 of the world’s top men’s and women’s sabre fencers competed.

Oh, ranked second in world, won the Cancun Sabre Grand Prix in December and was in fine form again throughout this latest men’s competition. Having progressed into the knockout stages, he beat France’s Bolade Apithy 15-12 in the last 16, USA’s Eli Dershwitz – ranked four in the world – 15-8 in the quarter-finals, and Iran’s Mojtaba Abedini, 15-9 in the semi-finals. Abedini’s progress to the last four was highlighted by defeating the two-time Olympic gold medallist, Aron Szilagyi of Hungary, in the round of 16, 15-13.

That brought a final showdown with Curatoli, ranked six in the world, and the Korean continued that form from earlier in the competition to defeat the Italian 15-8 and take the gold medal.

Curatoli for his part had defeated the top-ranked Bongil Gu of Korea in the semi-final 15-11, ironically following on from his victory over Gu in the same event last year in the Final.

In the women’s event, the gold medal for the two-time World Champion Sofya Velikaya marked a stunning comeback after a year-and-a-half break from competition.

Despite being unranked going into the competition, Velikaya’s charge to the Final was spearheaded by victory over world number two, Rossella Gregorio of Italy, 15-11 in the last 32 stage, before overcoming France’s Saoussen Boudiaf 15-9 in the last 16, Spain’s Lucia Martin-Portugues 15-8 in the quarter-finals, and Korea’s Olympic gold medallist Jiyeon Kim, 15-5 in the semi-finals.

The Final with world number three Marton was a great tense battle but the Russian came through to take gold thanks to a 15-12 scoreline.

Marton’s progress to another silver medal saw her defeat USA’s two-time Olympic gold medallist and two-time World Champion Mariel Zagunis in the semi-final 15-12 in another equally close contest.

The next FIE action is this weekend with the FIE Foil Grand Prix in Shanghai, China.