The 35th “Trofeo Carroccio” epee world cup brought a record participation of 244 fencers from 48 worldwide countries filled the hall of Palaborsani in Legnano to the top. This tournament was a testing competition for the upcoming European championship that will take place in the very same halls.
With the Olympic qualification year in progress where every point counts, the emotions in the hall were running high. Since the qualification from the poules brought 16 fencers directly to the 64 matches, even the poules matches were fought as if there was a life at stake. Those who advanced directly from the poules spared themselves from the exhausting advance through the 3 elimination rounds where nothing was sure.
The second day of the competition came with a big surprise, as the favorite Joerg Fiedler (GER) lost with Michal Adamek (POL) in the very first match. Another exciting match performed Matthew Trager against Gabor Boczko who defeated Trager 1:0.
The best out of 244 fencers and a trophy of Carroccio fought out the experienced athlete Dmitriy Karuchenko from Ukraine that managed to easily defeat Yannick Borel in the semifinal and Ulrich Robeiri (both FRA, both 15:8) in the final.
The teams event demonstrated that the individual and team competitions are a whole different world. Although Corea, USA, China and Germany didn’t have a single fencer in the finals of the individual event, as strong as they are in the teams wiped out the favorites and occupied the final four of the teams event. Corea defeated China and USA handled Germany in the semifinals facing each other in the finals where Corea brought down USA 31:24.
Individual:
1. Karuchenko Dmitriy (UKR)
2. Robeiri Ulrich (FRA)
3. Borel Yannick (FRA)
3. Zawrotniak Radoslaw (POL)
Teams:
1. Corea
2. USA
3. China
Photo Augusto Bizzi
