Heinzer and Navarria the golden duo at Westend Epee Grand Prix in Budapest

Heinzer defeated France’s Alex Fava to take gold in the men’s competition, whilst Navarria took gold in the women’s final against China’s Sheng Lin.

More than 500 international men’s and women’s epee fencers participated in the weekend’s competition, which took place in Budapest’s MOM Sports Centre. With nine of the top ten ranked epee fencers in action, the men’s competition was always going to be a tight affair and so it proved.

However Heinzer came good and won his fourth international fencing Grand Prix to add to his six World Cup wins, although he was pushed all the way in the Final against Fava, winning 15-13. To get there the Swiss fencer defeated two-time World Champion Nikolai Novosjolov of Estonia in the quarter-finals, 15-12, before progressing in the semi-finals at the expense of Russia’s Sergey Khodos, 15-10.
For Fava, the appearance in the Final and silver medal represented a best-ever finish in a ranking event, which came after defeating second-ranked Bogdan Nikishin of Ukraine in the quarter-finals 15-10, before winning a close match with his French teammate, Jonathan Bonnaire, in the semi-final, 15-14.

The women’s competition was as equally close fought and Navarria took gold in a low-scoring women’s final against China’s Sheng Lin, 5-4. The success for the Italian was her second Grand Prix win after winning the silver medal at this season’s Doha Grand Prix.

Given the strength of the women’s completion field which saw most of the top 20 ranked fencers in action, Lin was one of several competitors fenced far above their rankings in the event. Ranked 257th going into the competition, the Chinese fencer took-out Poland’s seventh-ranked Ewa Nelip in the semi-final, 15-8, whilst Navarria beat 103rd-ranked Marie-Florence Candassamy of France in the other semi-final, 14-13.

The next FIE action comes this weekend with the SK Telecom Men’s and Women’s Sabre Grand Prix in Seoul, Korea, from 30 April to 1 May.