St. Petersburg – Italy and Korea take first golds of the 2013 World Combat Games fencing events.
Carolina Erba (ITA) defeated Inna Deriglazova (RUS) 13-12 in overtime to take the women’s foil title at the 2013 Sportaccord World Combat Games.
Deriglazova lead for most of the match, with a 4-3 lead after the first period and an 8/6 lead at the end of the second. In the 3rd period, Erba was able to tie the score at 10-10. Deriglazova extended her lead up to 12-10 but then Erba fought back to tie the score 12-12 and force an overtime minute.
In the men’s sabre event, Gu Bongil (KOR) opened up with the first touch of the bout against Tiberiu (ROU) and led for most of the match. Dolniceanu took a brief lead at 3-2, but Gu scored the next two touches to gain a 4-3 lead.
The fencers went into the minute break with Gu holding onto a one point lead at 8-7. After the break, Gu broke the match open with 3 straight touches for a 4 point lead and kept the pressure on to win 15-10.
In the men’s sabre event, 11 of the top 12 fencers competed. The match for bronze was close, tied at 13:13. However, Aron Szilagyi (HUN) was extremely focused and made two points in a row, much to the disappointment of Veniamin Reshetnikov (RUS) and the Russian spectators.
In women`s foil, Carolina Erba (ITA), Carolin Golutbitskyi (GER), Inna Deriglazova (RUS) and Jeon Hee Sook (KOR) made it to the semi-finals. Deriglazova who had been in amazing shape the whole season, defeated Golubitskyi 15:6 in the semi-final and Erba won against Jeon 12:11 to qualify for the final.
2012 Olympic Champion Aron Szilagyi (HUN) said about winning the bronze medal:
“Three months after the World Championships in Budapest I am not in the best shape. I had only a short preparation and just hoped to fence well. The competition was very strong, 11 fencers of the top 12 in the world ranking were present. I was happy to beat KIM (KOR) in the quarterfinals and I am not sad to have lost to GU (KOR) in the semis. I had no answer to his actions today, he was much better. However, I learned a lot and hope that this won’t be the case in the future. Now, I am happy with my bronze medal.”
Video: Men’s Sabre Hightlight:
