The first medals were handed out in the sabre, with a dream start for the home team.
Results – here
Other FIE World Fencing Championships posts – here
Men’s Individual Epee
As always, the favourites, including France’s Gauthier Grumier, the top seed, went through directly to the main draw. In the group stages, German Jorg Fiedler & Israel’s Ido Herpe were among those who topped their tables, earning direct entries into the main draw. Canada’s Hugues Boisvert-Simard went 4-1, Maxime Brinck-Croteau was 3-2, Jean Lelion 3-3 and Leland Guillemin 2-3, all enough to make the preliminary round draw.
Boisvert-Simard managed a 15-7 win in his opening preliminary round match, beating his Mexican opponent, and Brick-Croteau also went through, winning on a final touch against Senegal’s Alexandre Bouzaid, 15-14. The other Canadians weren’t able to go through, as Venezuela’s Silvio Fernandez beat Guillemin and Lelion lost 15-13 to Brazil’s Nicolas Ferreira.
Neither Canadian managed to progress beyond that, though, as Brinck-Croteau was handily beaten by Venezuela’s Rube Limardo, the World #20, and Boisvert-Simard was taken out by Ferreira. There were some surprises, with Ukraine’s Maksym Khvorost, Poland’s Radoslaw Zawrotniak and German Christoph Kneip among the higher ranked fencers eliminated.
Men’s Individual Sabre
Canada’s Joseph Polossifakis impressively won his opening bout, beating Hungary’s Tamas Decsi 15-9. All of the top seeds also advanced, but Polossifakis met his match in the next round, losing 15-11 to German Max Hartung. That was the first round that started to see the top seeds under some pressure. Russian Kamil Ibragimov was beaten handily by France’s Bolade Apithy, while defending champion Nikolay Kovalev had to go to the final touch against Iran’s Ali Pakdaman. Olympic champion Aron Szilagyi of Hungary got a tough challenge as well, from Italy’s Enrico Berre’. Also still alive was the former champion, Veniamin Reshetnikov of Russia.
Top seed Gu Bon-gil of Korea was given a tough challenge by Brazil’s Renzo Agresta, but managed to move through to the quarter-finals, while American Daryl Homer won on the final touch against Apithy. The Russians suffered a couple of big blows, with Kovalev beaten by Oh Eun-seok of South Korea and Romania’s Tiberiu Dolniceanu, a two time World bronze medalist, ousting Reshetnikov. The lone Russian to advance was Alexey Yakimenko, who beat another Korean, Won Woo-young. The fourth Korean in the field, Kim Jung-hwan, did advance to the quarter-finals, as did Hartung and Szilagyi.
Gu led Homer late in their quarter-final, but a 5-0 run from the American turned the match around, and the American managed to hold on, earning his first World medal. There was trouble for the other Koreans as well. Kim led 13-12 against Yakimenko, only to lose three straight points and go out, giving the Russians their first medal of the Championships. Oh had a late battle with Dolniceanu, with the Korean managing to push the score to 14-all, only for the Romanian to get the winning strike, earning him another medal. So the Koreans will finish the sabre without a medal, and will have to wait for the team event. The last quarter saw Szilagyi eliminated, beaten out by Hartung, who won 15-11.
Dolniceanu and Homer fought a close battle in the first semi-final, with the Romanian opening up a three point advantage, moving ahead 7-4. Homer got back within a single point, but for a long time struggled to get closer than that. Finally, he managed it, scoring at 13-12 to move into a 13-all tie. Dolniceanu then promptly got the next touch to put himself on the brink, only for Homer to score next, leveling the score at 14-all, and the American then completed the comeback on the next point, winning 15-14, his only lead of the match. The second semi-final was not dramatic at all, as Yakimenko dominated, winning the first nine points against Hartung, and ultimately taking it 15-6.
Yakimenko stayed on that roll in the final, dominating Homer and closing out the night for the crowd with a second gold medal. He won ten of the first eleven touches, and won comfortably, even easier than his semi-final result.
| 1 | Alexey Yakimenko | RUS |
| 2 | Daryl Homer | USA |
| 3 | Tiberiu Dolniceanu | ROU |
| 3 | Max Hartung | GER |
| 5 | Gu Bon-gil | KOR |
| 6 | Aron Szilagyi | HUN |
| 7 | Kim Jung-hwan | KOR |
| 8 | Oh Eun-seok | KOR |
Final: Yakimenko – Homer, 15 – 5
Women’s Individual Epee
American Courtney Hurley and Estonia’s Irina Embrich were among those who went directly through to the main draw out of the groups. Leonora MacKinnon was 3-3, while Malinka Hoppe and Alexis Rudkovska were 2-3, all going through to the preliminary round, while Joanna Guy was 2-4, not advancing.
Hoppe won her opening bout, against Brazil’s Amanda Simeao, but that was the only good news for the Canadians, as Rudkovska was beaten by Romania’s Loredana Dinu and MacKinnon lost on the final touch against Argentina’s Isabel Di Tella. Hoppe was then eliminated in the second round, as she lost decisively to World #24 Vivian Kong of Hong Kong. The biggest upset of the round saw World #17 Ayaka Shimookawa of Japan stunning beaten by Finland’s Michaela Kock, outside the World top 100. Also winning was Poland’s Ewa Nelip, who had a match against South Korea’s Choi Eun-sook go down to the final touch.
Women’s Individual Sabre
Canada’s Gabriella Page had a dramatic match against Mexico’s Ursula Gonzalez, as she went ahead 14-12, only to watch the Mexican pull it back to 14-all. Still, the Canadian managed to earn the winning point, going through to the round of 32. Most of the top seeds went through, but there was one upset, as France’s Charlotte Lembach, the World #8, was beaten by Mexico’s Paola Pliego.
In the next round, Page was heavily beaten by one of the favourites, American Mariel Zagunis, a former Olympic champion who had no problem progressing. The other top seeds, Russians Yana Egorian and Sofya Velikaya and top seed Olga Kharlan of Ukraine, all advanced as well. There were some higher seeds eliminated, as Yuliya Gavrilova of Russia beat her more higher seeded team-mate, Ekaterina Dyachenko. Also going out was Italy’s Rossella Gregorio, beaten by Ukrainian Alina Komashchuk, and South Korea’s Kim Ji-yeon, who was surprised by Vietnam’s Thi Le Dung Nguyen. Another Korean won a tight battle, was Hwang Seo-na won on the final touch against Pliego.
A series of shockers left the draw wide open, as big names went tumbling in the round of sixteen. The biggest was Kharlan, who was beaten out by France’s Cecilia Berder, who had never been to the last eight of the Worlds before. At the same time, Zagunis was eliminated, losing 15-9 against Hungary’s Anna Marton, the 2014 World junior champion. The Egorian, the #4 seed, went out against China’s Shen Chen and #6 Dagmara Wozniak of the United States lost 15-14 against Greece’s Vassiliki Vougiouka, who was making her third quarter-final showing, and is looking for her first medal. The only top ten seed to survive was Velikaya, who took out American Ibtihaj Muhammad to go through. She was also the only Russian to go through, after Gavrilova was beaten by Tunisia’s Azza Besbes. Completing the quarter-final field were Hwang, who took out Nguyen, and Poland’s Aleksandra Socha.
Velikaya had a dominant victory, allowing Socha only four touches as she marched into the semi-finals. Berder also continued her good run, handily beating Hwang to make the semi-finals. The other two saw Shen beat out Besbes, earning her first World medal, while Vougiouka was eliminated again at the quarter-final stage, beaten by Marton.
After surrendering the opening two points, Berder stormed back in the first semi-final, winning five straight touches to open up a solid lead. Shen managed to get things in gear after that, but struggled to overcome Berder’s advantage. Berder then pulled away again late, and won comfortably, 15-10. The second semi-final saw Marton race away to a lead against her Russian opponent, Velikaya, stunning the home crowd by going ahead 5-1. However, Velikaya made a charge right back, as a 6-1 run powered her to a 7-6 lead. She further extended that advantage, and pulled away to win 15-8, closing on an incredible 14-3 run.
In the final, Velikaya carried right on with her form from the semi-final, racing away to a 6-2 advantage over Berder. However, the Frenchwoman turned things around, and an incredible 5-1 run draw the match level at 7-all. Velikaya managed to get things back together after that, moving back out to a lead, racing away to 13-8, part of an impressive 6-1 run. Velikaya was able to hold that advantage, and took the gold medal with a 15-12 win.
| 1 | Sofya Velikaya | RUS |
| 2 | Cecilia Berder | FRA |
| 3 | Anna Marton | HUN |
| 3 | Shen Chen | CHN |
| 5 | Aleksandra Socha | POL |
| 6 | Vassiliki Vougiouka | GRE |
| 7 | Azza Besbes | TUN |
| 8 | Hwang Seo-na | KOR |
Final: Velikaya – Berder, 15 – 12
Medal Table
| Nation | G | S | B | Total |
| RUS | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| FRA | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| USA | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| HUN | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| ROU | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
A dream start for the Russians, who start with a sweep of the Sabre events.
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