Interesting battles and finales at 2015 European Games

In the women’s foil, Russia overtook France finishing with nearly three touches to one at 45-18 having charged ahead in nearly every round of the nine total bouts, with an especially strong show of force by Anastasia Ivanova.

Perhaps more rested than the others because of their bye into the semi-finals where they beat Poland almost as easily as France, the Russians topped the European Games as one of the strongest fencing teams overall.

For the bronze medal encounter, Italy beat Poland by virtue of a 45-28 win.

In the women’s epee, Romania and Estonia made it through to the gold-medal match. In spite of a strong team fielded by Estonia, it was not enough to overcome the powerhouse epee of the Romanians and, in particular, champion and Olympian Anna Maria Branza.

With a low total score of 31-25, the teams took multiple non-combativity calls for a relatively short match to the final round. Italy took bronze over Russia earlier in the day with a close match ending at 40-36.

The men’s team sabre is always a highly entertaining and powerful event, and this time was no exception for on this occasion Romania and Italy battled away in a blazing 44-45 finish with Italy taking gold.

Leaping high on the final touch, Italy’s Murolo showed his obvious athleticism on the piste. He demonstrated the ability to perform under the pressure of a tied final round even against champions such as Dolniceanu, which also led them to the win against Russia, 45-42, in the semi-finals.

In another close match, Germany scored the final touch 45-44 against Russia to take the bronze medal.

The women’s team sabre gave Ukraine’s fencing Olympic superstar Olga Kharlan a chance to duel her way to gold after losing in early rounds in the individual event.

Ukraine fought a tough battle against Italy, with the score staying very close until Kharlan was able to pull ahead in the final and ninth round, winning by only two touches, 45-43. The bronze match was not as close with Russia comfortably defeating France 45-29.

In men’s team epee France claimed gold against Russia with the experienced and precision-oriented French team easily defeating their opponents 45-32. The bronze-medal match between Italy and Switzerland finished with Italy winning 44-40, only after first giving the win to the Swiss in a referee error involving non-combativity and priority in the final round. While first appearing to be a Swiss victory, the match resumed and Italy prevailed.

The men’s team foil saw Great Britain beat Italy in a close 45-41 competition.

Olympian and British champion Richard Kruse led his team-mates throughout the match to ensure they had just the edge needed to overcome the very tactical Italians. In the bronze match, Russia defeated France 45-33.