Giorgio Avola (ITA) won the 2011 European Championship in Men’s Foil with a 15-14 victory over teammate Andrea Cassara (ITA). Andrea Baldini (ITA) completed the Italian individual medal sweep as he shared bronze with Alexey Cheremisinov (RUS).
This was the second event of the 2011 European Championships held in Sheffield, England. This event counts for qualification points for the 2012 Olympic Games. The event will also count for seeding into the 2011 World Championships later this year.
Avola entered the event as the 4th ranked Italian at 11th in the FIE World Rankings. He seeded 4th place out of the pools and proceeded to win his elimination bouts with no opponents reaching double-digits until the gold medal bout.
In the final 8, Sebastian Bachman (GER) took Avola to the limit in a 10-9 overtime match. With the score tied at the end of 9 minutes of fencing, Bachman won priority. Avola managed to score the winning touch with just 8 seconds left in the overtime period.
In the top 4 Avola dispatched Cheremisinov 15-8.
Full results are available at the 2011 European Championships site. The Italian Fencing Federation has a photo gallery from the men’s foil event available on Facebook.
Top 8: Men’s Foil European Championship
| Rank | Name | Nationality |
| 1 | AVOLA Giorgio | ITA |
| 2 | CASSARA Andrea | ITA |
| 3 | BALDINI Andrea | ITA |
| 3 | CHEREMISINOV Alexey | RUS |
| 5 | JOVANOVIC Bojan | CRO |
| 6 | BACHMANN Sebastian | GER |
| 7 | PRANZ Rene | AUT |
| 8 | BORST Sebastiaan | NED |