France and Italy affirmed their place at the top of the world rankings in the Men’s Team Epee and Women’s Team Foil events by securing wins at the 2011 European Championships. The win by Italy is their 3rd straight in Olympic qualifying and has them securely at the top of the team standings.
France’s showing keeps them ahead of Hungary for the #1 seed heading into the 2011 World Championships.
Women’s Team Foil
The Italian women’s foil team held onto a late lead to eeke out the win against a Russian team determined to upset the balance in Women’s Foil. During the match the lead changed hands four times. The Italians led with Vezzali who uncharacteristically lost the opening match 5-0 to Korobeynikova and the Russians held the lead until the eighth bout of the match. Di Francisca, who this week took the individual European Championship, clawed back from 6 touches behind to take a 40-38 lead for Italy heading into the final bout. Vezzali anchored the Italian team, but let Russia back into the match before holding them off to give Italy the championship at a 45-43 score.
Video Highlight of the final bout between Vezzali and Shanaeva
The Italy-Russia match was approached with an air of anticipation. These teams head up the world rankings are are clearly ahead of the other teams in the European zone. The fact that Italy had to chase through the match kept the crowd entertained. Germany won the bronze medal, defeating Hungary 45-38.
Italy dominated the foil events taking all four gold medals (men’s and women’s individual and team) and the silver and bronze in the men’s individual event and silver in the women’s individual event. Italy has set themselves as the team to beat at the World Championships.
Men’s Team Epee
The French men’s epee team stormed to victory over Hungary to take the 2011 European Championship title leading right from the first fight. In the first match of the relay, Hungary fell behind by 3 touches and France maintained that margin to the final bout of the match. Grumier, Luceney, Gustin and Borel all contributed to the 45-40 victory over the Hungarian team of Boczko, Imre, Redli and Somfai.
France’s march to the gold was without incident as they defeated the Ukraine (Medvedev, Nikishin, Herey and Karuchenko) 45-37 in the semis. Hungary defeated a strong Russian team (Avdeev, Sukhov, Khodos and Tikhomirov ) 45-42 to make the final against France. Russia dominated the Ukraine in the bronze medal match and won 45-36.
This win adds another title to their already impressive French Men’s Epee record. They have won every Olympic and World Championships gold medal in team epee since 2004.
Results: Women’s Team Foil:
- Italy
- Russia
- Germany
- Hungary
- France
- Poland
- Ukraine
- Great Britain
Results: Men’s Team Epee:
- France
- Hungary
- Russia
- Ukraine
- Germany
- Switzerland
- Italy
- Estonia
The men’s epee team event has no impact for Olympic qualification, but the Women’s Team Foil event puts Italy, Russia, and Poland as the European teams currently qualified for bids in their team events. [See spreadsheet.]
