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The Black Sea resort of Sochi, a town made internationally famous for hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics, now plays host to a sport long associated with the Summer Olympics. Day 1 of the champions saw a new champion crowned in Cadet Men’s Sabre and Women’s Foil. Saturday was the turn of Cadet Men’s Epee and Women’s Foil. Men’s Epee saw a first medal of the championship for Italy, won by Davide Di Veroli and Women’s Foil saw the home side, Russia, take their second gold, won by Adelina Bikbulatova.

Cadet Men’s Epee

Men’s Epee saw the largest number of entries in the Cadet championship. By the evening in the Iceberg, sports palace, the field had been wittled down to four finalists. The first semi-final saw Alexander Biro (AUT) face Dmitriy Shvelidze (RUS). The Austrian a counter attacking fencer using French-grip and pommelling, the match settled into a fairly steddy pattern with nearly all of the Austrian’s hits scored with counter attack and the Shvelidze scoring nearly all his hits with fleche attacks. The match advanced at pace with the score tied at 10-all after the first period. Biro then took a two-point lead which might have proven decisive but Shvelidze managed to score four one-light attacks to wrist with fleche to win 15-13.

The second semi final saw two left-handers Paul Veltrup (Ger) and Davide Di Veroli (ITA) face each other. Despite give a few centimetres in height and reach to his opponent the Italian’s lightning footwork proved critical. A far more varied and tactical semi -final this time saw the Italian taking a two point lead into the second break and maintaining and extending that lead in the final period using his footwork to frustrate his opponent and remain out of range of his attacks while choosing his moment to pick him off. The final score 13-6.

Early open exchanges in the final match saw Di Veroli take the lead against Shvelidze. This time it was the Russian who was on the end of a series of devasting fleche attacks. Despite clawing back the 4-1 deficit from early exchanged, the message from the Italian coach was clear as Di Veroli stepped up the speed and ferocity of his attacks. In the end the Russian was unable to live with the speed of the attacks from Di Veroli and he ran out a worthy winner of the match 15-7 and a new European champion.

1 DI VEROLI, Davide ITA
2 SHVELIDZE, Dmitriy RUS
3T BIRO, Alexander AUT
3T VELTRUP, Paul GER

Final rankings can be found here.

Cadet Women’s Foil

Finals in women’s foil at the top level have often been a cagey affair in recent seasons. The first few moments of the semi-final between Claudia Memoli (ITA) and Elena Petrova (RUS) complied to this pattern with a stop-start rhythm as both fencers found their distance. Unfortunately for the Italian is was Bikbulatova who found her feet first and scored five unanswered hits to suddenly take her lead to 7-2 before the end of the first period. This looked like it might be the end for Memoli but she rallied early in the second period to score a number of unanswered point herself and claw the score back to 12-12 halfway through the second period. At this point the momentum of the match had truly shifted and Memoli attacked aggressively and effectively to win the match 15-13.

A second Russian and Italian pair contested the second semi-final, Adelina Bikbulatova (RUS) and Martina Favaretto (ITA). This match was almost a mirror image of the first semi with the Italian taking an early lead (4-1) with compound attacks and remises creating awkward timings for Bikbulatova to defend. As she adapted to her oppononents rythmn however she found her way back into the match and the two traded hits to finish the first period 7-all. The came out guns blazing in the second period and quickly took a three point lead only for the Favaretto to respond and bring the score 11-12. Finally Bikbulatova was able to seal out the match with a serious of well-timed sixte parry-riposte to book her place in the final.

The final of Memoli and Bikbulatova had none of the nervousness of earlier exchanges and the fencers exchanged hits from the very beginning. The lead changed hands several times in the early exchanges until 6-all until Bikbulatova got some breathing space with a series of parry-ripostes to take a three point lead into the end of the first period 7-10. Memoli wasn’t finished yet and fought back bravely to get within a point of her opponent but that early cushion proved sufficient to see victory for the Russian fencer, sealing out the victory 15-12 with one final parry-riposte. Bikbulatova takes gold for the host nation, their second of the championship thusfar.

1 BIKBULATOVA, Adelina RUS
2 MEMOLI, Claudia ITA
3T PETROVA, Elena RUS
3T FAVARETTO, Martina ITA

Final rankings can be found here.