US Women’s Team takes 4th and US Men finish 13th.
Russia earned double-gold at the 2010 Fencing World Championships with victories in over Italy (45-41) in Men’s Team Sabre and over the Ukraine (45-33) in Women’s Team Sabre. The matches were held Tuesday at the Grand Palais in Paris, France.
The team events were welcomed by Russia after their bronze medal performances in the individual events by Veniamin Reshetnikov and Sophia Velikaia.
The Russian men won a hotly contested final in which Italy led 15-4 after the first 3 bouts. Nikolai Kovalev staged a 12-5 comeback and left Italy with a one touch lead (40-39) heading into the final bout.
Alexey Yakimenko fed off of the momentum and finally took the lead for Russia at 42-41 and went on to score the remaining 3 points to hand Russia the men’s team title.
Italy is left with another silver medal finish, repeating their 2009 performance. Romania defeated Belarus 45-41 for the bronze.
The US Men’s Team faltered early, losing in the round of 16 and coming in 13th place.
In the women’s sabre event, the United States was knocked out of the medals with losses to Russia in the semi-finals and to France 45-35 in the bronze medal match.
Russia went on to face the reigning world and Olympic champion Ukrainian women’s sabre team. Sophia Velikaia was the star for Russia as they were able to out fence individual silver medalist Olga Kharlan.
France, which was soundly defeated by the Ukraine in the semi-finals defeated the United States 45-35 to the cheers of the partisan French crowd. Mariel Zagunis did not fence in the bronze medal match.