Women’s Team Epee
The Romanian Women’s epee team cruised to victory over Russia to take the 2011 European Championship title in great style. The match started slowly with the Romanians taking a small lead which they held for several fights. Three fights ended early by the referee for non-combativity and the pressure mounted for the Russian team. This played into the hands of the Romanians as they stormed ahead in the final two bouts to win 45-31. Alexandru, Branza, Iordachioiu and Mariou all contributed to the 45-31 victory over the Russian team of Kolobova, Logounova, Shutova and Sivkova.
Romania’s progression to the gold medal match was straight forward as they overcame the French team (Daninthe, Flessel-Colovic, Jaques Arede-Coquin and Nisima) 45-38 in the semis. Russia made their way through to the final, beating the very strong Estonian team (Beljaeva, Embrich, Kuusk and Zuikova) 42-41.
In the Bronze medal match the French team went on to win after being behind right from the start against the Estonians. They went on to win 42-41 in the most sensational comeback of the Championships as Flessel-Colovic swapped from a pistol grip to French grip so that she could pommel. She then went on to dominate Embrich of Estonia winning 42-41 in the priority minute.
This win adds another title to their 2010 World Championships medal and cements their position as the top team in the World.
Official press release:
Men’s Team Sabre
The Italian men’s sabre team led from start to finish over Germany to take the 2011 European Championship title. The Italians led with Montano who raced to a 5-0 lead over Hartung and they never looked back. Occuzzi and Tarantino widened the margin and by the end of the seventh match Italy held a commanding 10 hit lead. A late rally from Hartung closed the gap to seven hits but Montano anchored the team home taking the victory from Limbach. Heubner was the third member of a German team who had to settle for silver over the dominant Italians.
Italy’s progression to the gold medal match was without complication beating Hungary 45-38 and Romania 45-29. It was a different story for Germany who had a cagey win over Belarus, 45-41, before coming up against the mighty Russians. Everyone expected the Russians to win but the Germans had other ideas and thrashed the favourites 45-35. In the Bronze medal match the Russian team went on to win 45-36 over Romania after a tough debrief with the world’s best sabre coach, Chritian Baeur.
This win adds another title to what has already been a successful Championships for the Italians. They top the final medal table with six gold medal, two silver medals and two bronze medals.
Women's team epee:
1) Romania
2) Russia
3) France
Men's saber team:
1) Italy
2) Germany
3) Russia
The final medal table is available for download.
