The Trofeo Vito Noto was initially organized in the 80s in honor of the young fencer Vito Noto who got killed during an accident in the age of 19. This competition was made on incentive of his parents. In 1982 the last memorial took place along with the Coupe d’Europe of women epee. The organizer of the Coupe d’Europe Sandro Cuomo also manage to win this memorial. After a long time, the family wants to re-establish the tradition and asked Sandro Cuomo to organize it in Palermo again.
The tournament has following rules: Only 8 top world fencers are allowed to start in this pattern. Zone Champions from the Europe, Africa, America and Asia, Olympic champion, the world champion, the winner of the world cup and the defender of the title Vito Noto. As there was no previous winner to compete, there were only 7 fencers to fight for the title.
As this is the matter of honor to participate on this event, all expenses for the athletes and their coaches are paid. The athletes also receives 1500 EUR for the participation. The winner receives additional 3000 EUR plus the title of defender to ensure the participation in the next year. 2nd place brings the fencer prize money of 2000 EUR and the 3rd places are valued by 500 EUR.
Unfortunately the Asian champion from Corea wasn’t allowed to come so he was replaced by the next in order from Kazakhstan. The final configuration for this annue was: Paolo Pizzo as the World champion, Matteo Tagliariol as the Olympic champion, Bouzaid Alexander as the Africa champion, Fiedler Joerg as the European champion, Thompson Soren as the America champion and Imre Geza as the 3rd men in the world cup ladder (first and second being already chosen Pizzo and Fiedler).
The matches proceeded as follows:
Tabelaue 8:
Pizzo (ITA) - Bouzad (SEN) 15:5
Thompson (USA) - Alimzhanov (KAZ) 15:14
Tagliariol (ITA) - Fiedler (GER) 15:12
Imre (HUN) free draw
Semifinale
Imre - Pizzo 15:14
Tagliariol - Thompson 9:8
Finale
Imre - Tagliariol 15:14
Congratulations!
