2009 World Champion Aida Shanaeva was no match for the combined Italian forces as Shanaeva went -11, and Italy reclaims the women’s team foil crown 45-33.
A young US squad (Doris Willette, Ambika Singh, Nzingha Prescod, Lee Kiefer) lost to Romania in the quarterfinals, but gained valuable experience and won their final match for 7th place.
In the first bout, 3 time individual Olympic champion Vezzali jumped out to a 5-2 lead over Shanaeva to set the tone. Di Francisca and Errigo added to the lead and after 3 bouts Italy led 15-7.
Larisa Korobeinikova tried to bring the match back with a 13-5 rally in the 7th bout, but it was too little too late as Errigo shut down Shanaeva 5-2 and handed off a 12 point lead to Vezzali for the final bout.
Russian sub Gafurzianova did well for herself, matching Vezzali touch for touch, but was unable to make up any ground as Italy closed out the match 45-33.
The US women’s foil team was seeded 4th place in the team event – due mainly to the Olympic silver medal win in Beijing which accounted for 104 of their 215 total points coming into the world championships. None of the starters from the Olympics were present for this world championships.
The US women won their first match against Japan before running into Romania in the round of 8. Romania won that match 35-23 to send the US into the placement rounds.
The US lost to Korea 28-26 and then Doris Willette anchored the US team with an 11-5 bout in their victory against the Ukraine, 45-38, to place 7th.
Germany defeated Romania 42-30 in the bronze medal match.
2009 Fencing World Championships:
Women’s Team Foil – Final Results
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| Italian foil star and glamour-girl Margherita Granbassi / Serge Timacheff FencingPhotos.com |
