Baldini Takes Men’s Foil Crown

Andrea Baldini (ITA) stormed back on the world cup scene after missing out on the 2008 Beijing Olympics with a dominating victory of China’s Joon Zhu at the 2009 World Championships. US fencer Kurt Getz knocked off #4 Richard Cruse en route to a 7th place finish.

Gerek Meinhardt (pictured, right) made the top 16, finishing 14th. Alexander Massialas (44th) and Miles Chamley-Watson (46th) fell in the first round.

Kurt Getz fenced his way into the top-8 but was stopped by China’s Jun Zhu 15-5. Earlier Getz had upset #4 Richard Kruse 15-11 after surviving a 15-14 match against Korea’s Chang Duk Ha.

Semi-Final Action

Peter Joppich was well rested coming into his semi-final against Zhu and quickly got up 2-0. Zhu seemed to solve for Joppich’s collapsing of the distance and ended the first period tied 5-5.

In the second period, Zhu, who finished 6th at the Beijing Olympics, continued trying to catch Joppich in preparation and using his height to catch Joppich short.

{sidebar id=1}Zhu took the lead 8-6. Joppich fights back but the second period ends with Zhu leading 9-8.

The third period begins with momentum on Zhu’s side and Joppich out of replay challenges. At 30 seconds into the 3rd period, Zhu catches Joppich coming forward twich to bump the lead up to 11-8.

At this point the tactics are pretty set. Joppich trying to set up a long attack and Zhu mixing up his counter-attacks to frustrate the German.

Joppich answers with 3 straight points to tie it up 11-11. On the next action, Zhu traps Joppich with a slight step back before attacking into Joppich’s advance. (12/11). Zhu then ripostes to go up 13-11. Joppich misses his next two attacks as Zhu wins 15-11.

In the second semi-final bout Andrea Baldini takes on Russia’s Artem Sedov. Baldini missed out on the 2008 Olympics after testing positive for a banned substance.

Baldini jumps right on Sedov with a quick attack followed by a riposte and counter-riposte to go up 3-0 in only 20 seconds of fencing action.

Sedov presses forward, determined not to let Baldini control the action on the strip.

Baldini continues to press his attack throughout the first period to set up a myriad of actions and end the first period dominating 9-1.

Sedov works to try to find an answer to Baldini. No matter what Sedov does to get a point, Baldini answers and wins 15-6.

Final Bout

Andrea Baldini and Zhu Joon trade a number of blade actions and fence to a standstill on the first phrase of the match.

Baldini takes the next action with a close riposte to go up 1-0. Early in the match, Baldini looks to be attempting the same strategy of Joppich: closing into Zhu’s distance and making the taller Chinese fencer uncomfortable with the distance.

Zhu ties things up 1-1, then reacts well to Baldini’s attack to take a 2-1 lead. Baldini continues to press with remises after his first attack falls short and is impaled by Zhu’s riposte (3-1).

Baldini continues to press and scores on a slow attack at Zhu’s end of the strip. He missed his next action and Zhu gets an easy touch to end the first period up 4-2.

In the second period, Baldini starts off attacking strong only to get hit by Zhu. Baldini scores the next two touches to close within 1 touch.

Just when both fencers seemed to have fallen asleep in the middle of the stip, Baldini launches an attack to tie the match. Zhu tries to bait Baldini on the next touch, but Baldini is just close enough to hit on his direct attack and take a 6-5 lead.

Now Zhu becomes a bit more active using an epee-style bouncing to creep in as Baldini uses the clock to force Zhu into action. With only 15 seconds remaining, Zhu concedes the period and goes to confer with his coach to figure out a 3rd period strategy.

Zhu starts off the 3rd period in the unusual position of being behind. He tries to force an attack but Baldini is ready with a riposte and goes up 7-5. Zhu, frustrated, begins using a lot more blade actions but Baldini will have none of it and attacks into onne of Zhu’s preparations to expand the lead to 3 touches.

Zhu now starts gambling on long attacks. In perhaps the highlight touch of the match Baldini catches Zhu’s fleche and turns to riposte Zhu in the back after the Chinese fencer has passed. Because the riposte started before the pass, the touch stands for Baldini.

Now unable to wait on Baldini, Zhu forces another attack but doesn’t have the speed to close in on Baldini, who calmly ripostes to put the lead to 10-5. Finally Zhu lands an attack 10-6 and follows up with another point to close within 3 with 1:11 remaining.

On the next action, both fencers close but Baldini pushes Zhu away and gets a yellow card. Capitalizing on Baldini’s frustration, Zhu scores quickly to close 10-8. On the next point Baldini ripostes and is leading by 3 touches with 30 seconds remaining in the bout.

Zhu starts to mount a comeback, closing to within one touch with only 15 seconds remaining, but Baldini again has the answer. On match point with Zhu down by 3 he tries to score on a long attack, but falls short and is hit as Baldini ends the match.

{mospagebreak title=Final Results}

2009 Men’s Foil World Championships – Final Ranking

Full results available at: http://www.live.fie.ch/antalya/resultats/

1	BALDINI	Andrea	ITA
2	ZHU	Jun	CHN
3	JOPPICH	Peter	GER
3	SEDOV	Artem	RUS
5	CASSARA	Andrea	ITA
6	GLONEK	Radoslaw	POL
7	GETZ	Kurt	USA
8	SHI	Jialuo	CHN
9	OTA	Yuki	JPN
10	KRUSE	Richard	GBR
11	LE PECHOUX	Erwan	FRA
12	KLEIBRINK	Benjamin	GER
13	JOUBERT	Terence	FRA
14	MEINHARDT	Gerek	USA
15	HUANG	Liangcai	CHN
16	LEI	Sheng	CHN
17	GUYART	Brice	FRA
18	SCHLOSSER	Roland	AUT
19	GANEEV	Renal	RUS
20	CIEPLY	Tomasz	POL
21	SALISCAN	Virgil	ROU
22	VANNI	Simone	ITA
23	POGREBNYAK	Andriy	UKR
24	BASSAL	Oren	ISR
25	MENENDEZ	Javier	ESP
26	PRANZ	Renee	AUT
27	KHOVANSKY	Alexey	RUS
28	BARRERA	Stefano	ITA
29	KWON	Young Ho	KOR
30	GATAI	Robert	HUN
31	HA	Chang Duk	KOR
32	HEDENSKOG	Filip	SWE
33	KENBER	Jamie	GBR
34	HALSTED	Laurence	GBR
35	PANCHAN	Nontapat	THA
36	CAPLLIURE	Luis	ESP
37	HERTSYK	Rostislav	UKR
38	FUKUDA	Yusuke	JPN
39	HATOEL	Maor	ISR
40	NGAN	Kwoon Yat	HKG
41	BERJOZKIN	Anton	HUN
42	STOUKALINE	Alexandre	RUS
43	EL SAYED	Alaa El Din	EGY
44	MASSIALAS	Alexander	USA
45	WESSELS	Andre	GER
46	CHAMLEY-WATSON	Miles	USA
46	PRYMACK	Anthony	CAN
48	OR	Tomer	ISR
49	LAU	Kwok Kin	HKG
50	RODRIGUEZ	Ignacio	ESP
51	NISSIM	Filippos	GRE
52	BORST	Sebastiaan	NED
53	JOVANOVIC	Bojan	CRO
54	KOENIG	Gregory	FRA
55	SANTOS	Gael	POR
56	HINTERSEER	Moritz	AUT
57	YUNES	Klod	UKR
58	PAGHIEV	Boris	MDA
59	MENENDEZ	Gabriel	ESP
60	CHEUNG	Siu Lun	HKG
61	OR HTUEL	Yaaqov	ISR
62	BACHMANN	Sebastian	GER
63	BABAOGLU	Tevfik Burak	TUR
64	JORGENSEN	Philippe	DEN
65	ICHIKAWA	Kyoya	JPN
65	JEFFERIES	Edward	GBR
67	LALONDE TURBIDE	Etienne	CAN
68	SZEKI	Bence	HUN
69	ZAWADA	Marcin	POL
70	KWAK	Lae Hyuk	KOR
71	LEE	Cheon Woong	KOR
72	MAZZA	Lorenzo	HUN
73	KONTOCHRISTOPOULOS	Nikolaos	GRE
74	FOUAD	Tarek	EGY
75	CHIDA	Kenta	JPN
76	CHU	Wing Hong	HKG
77	DEBIC	Ozren	CRO
78	SHIMBO	Heitor	BRA
79	VON DER OSTEN	Frederik	DEN
80	SOUZA	Joao Antonio	BRA
81	DARABAN	Radu	ROU
82	DIACONU	Alexandru Daniel	ROU
83	GAUDREAU-POLLENDER	Julien	CAN
84	CARDOSO	Marcos	BRA
84	KOLTYGO	Volodymyr	UKR
84	MOCEK	Slawomir	POL
87	TEISSEIRE	Nicolas	CAN
88	DRIGA	Maxim	MDA
89	KUNDERA	Vaclav	CZE
90	AL AMODI	Abdulaziz	QAT
91	MOCHKO	Lucas	BRA
92	ZAIRUL ZAIMI	Mohd Arsad	MAS
93	DIMOPOULOS	Georges	GRE
94	MALAI	Ivan	MDA
95	DA SILVA	Enrique	VEN
96	JORGENSEN	Patrick	DEN
97	SAYYAD GHANBARI	Hamed	IRI
98	ALVEAR	Felipe	CHI
99	KOSOVA	Sercin	TUR
100	KULAKOV	Dmitriy	KAZ
101	GUTIERREZ	Daniel	MEX
101	FEDYAYEV	Roman	KAZ
103	ALI	Abdullah	KUW
104	MOSKALENKO	Alexey	KAZ
105	RODRIGUEZ	Carlos Eduardo	VEN
105	REZAEI TADI	Javad	IRI
107	TEACA	Iulian	ROU
108	HAXTHAUSEN	Jonas	DEN
109	VILJOEN	Jacques	RSA
110	NEW	Jarryd	RSA
111	ULUSAHIN	Utku	TUR
112	DAGDEVIRENTURK	Ali	TUR
113	NAJAFI	Hamid	IRI
114	YOUSEF	Imed	KUW
115	KUMAR	Vijay	IND
116	MAJED	Talal	KUW
117	MARAIS	Ashley	RSA
118	KUSAR	Matej	SLO
119	EBRAHIMI	Abdullah	QAT
120	PETRUSENCO	Serghei	MDA
121	AL ADWANI	Yousef	KUW
122	BATTUMUR	Batsuuri	MGL
123	PACHON	Santiago	COL
123	FAYAD	Victor	LIB