Italy and Russia continued to add to their medal count at the 2011 Cadet and Junior Fencing World Championships with medal performances in the women’s sabre and men’s epee events.
The women’s sabre field was beset with upsets at the 2011 Cadet World Championships. In the final bout, Viktoria Kuybark (RUS) avenged her only loss in the preliminaries with a 15-10 victory over Chiara Mormile (ITA) in the finals. In the preliminary round Mormile bested Kuybark 5-3. Stavroula Dimkou (GRE) and Valeria Bolshakova (RUS) took 3rd. The only fencer seeded into the DE rounds in the top 8 was #2 Xinting Yu (CHN) who was upset in the top-8 by Kuybark 15-5.
For the United States, Francesca Russo went 4-1 in prelims and seeded 11th into the elimination table. She had a bye in the round of 64 but then fell to Lisa Freudenberger (GER) 15-13 in the round of 32. Margaret McDonald went 4-2 in the prelims and seeded out at 17th. She met Stavroula Dimkou (GRE) in the table of 32 where she lost 15-8.
Skyla Powers started out strong and was the top finisher for the US. She went 6-0 in the preliminaries and seeded 3rd into the elimination table. She had a bye in the round of 64 then dominated Alekxsandra Echeverria (MEX) 15-2. Powers then matched up with Valeria Bolshakova where she started off with a 5-1 lead. The Russian fencer climbed back into the match with a 5-0 run of her own, tying the match at 5-5. Powers again took the lead up to 8-6, then 9-7. Bolshakova tied the match up again at 13-13. Powers took a 14-13 lead but was unable to put the match away as Bolshakova rallied in the next two points and won 15-14.
Cadet Women’s Sabre:
1. RUS KUYBARK Viktoria
2. ITA MORMILE Chiara
3. RUS BOLSHAKOVA Valeria
3. GRE DIMKOU Stavroula
5. CHN YU Xinting
6. POL TUREK Malgorzata
7. ITA CRISCIO Martina
8. GER FREUDENBERGER Lisa
10. USA POWERS Skyla
19. USA RUSSO Francesca
21. USA MCDONALD Margaret
Cadet Men’s Epee
Lorenzo Buzzi (ITA) added another gold medal to Italy’s total with his 15-13 victory over Tim Kulchalski (GER) in the Cadet Men’s Epee final. Gabriele Cimini (ITA) and Daniel Berta (HUN) earned bronze.
Buzzi battled Kuchalski through the first period to a 1 point lead at 6-5. He then opened up the match, getting up by as many as 5 points before Kuchalski battled back to within 1 touch at 12-11. Kuchalski was never able to tie the match up again, however, and Buzzi held onto leads at 13-12 and 14-13 before scoring the final point.
Kulchalski prevented an all-Italy final with his 15-14 victory over Cimini in the semi-finals, surviving a late 5-0 rally at the end of their bout.
For the United States, Raymond Schorr won his first elimination bout 15-12 over Ilyas Khamis (CAN) and fell in the 32 to Kerr Hutchinson (CAN) 15-12. Alexander Eldeib seeded 14th and won his matches against Daniel Ming (GBR) 15-4, and Balazs Hamar (HUN) 15-14 before falling to Buzzi in the round of 16 15-10.
Brian Ro won victories against Marc-Antoin Blais-Belanger (CAN) 15-13 and Saleh Saleh (RGY( 8-7). Ro fell in the round of 16 to Daniel Haglund (SWE) 15-11.
1. ITA BUZZI Lorenzo
2. GER KUCHALSKI Tim
3. HUN BERTA Daniel
3. ITA CIMINI Gabriele
5. ESP SANCHEZ RODRIGUEZ Guillerm
6. CAN HUTCHINSON Kerr
7. SWE HAGLUND Daniel
8. GBR MARSH Philip
11. USA RO Brian
13. USA ELDEIB Alexander
19. USA SCHORR Raymond