Fencing.Net

Baldini Takes Men’s Foil Crown

Kurt Getz.  (c) 2009 Serge Timacheff.  FencingPhotos.comAndrea 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

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