Israel was the big winner on the final day of competition in the Cadet age group as their fencers took home both of the gold medals. The final day of the Cadet portion of these World Championships finds the US leading in the medal count with 6 total medals (2 silver and 4 bronze.) Russia and Israel lead the gold medal count with 2 golds each.
Cadet Men’s Epee:
In the top half of the bracket, the high seeds advanced through with the predicted matchups of 1 vs 8 and 4 vs 5. It took until the semi-final bout for an upset to occur here when Israel’s Yuval Shalom Freilich defeated top seed Balazs Hamar (HUN) 15-5.
[Photo Galleries from the Cadet Epee action available on Fencing.Net’s Facebook page.]
The bottom bracket, however, was filled with upsets with the top seed being #15 Sangyoung Park (KOR). Alexander Eldeib (USA) broke through in the elimination rounds, coming from a seeding of 54th to break into the top-8.
In the 8, Eldeib defeated 30th seed Hyeonil Hwang (KOR) 15-8 before facing off against Sabastian Majgier (POL). In their bout Majgier won with a score of 15-8.
For the finals, Freilich won easily against Majgier, 15-6.
Cadet Women’s Epee:
The Cadet Women’s Epee finals were almost a replay of last year, as they featured a China vs. Israel match up. This year, however, the spoils went to Israel. Epee today was Israel’s event as Daria Strelnikov (ISR) defeated Yixuan Xiang (CHN) 15-13 in the final.
2 US fencers made the final 8 with Audrey Abend losing a 15-14 match in the quarter-finals to Xue Qin (CHN). A second Chinese upset, this time of top-seeded Alona Komarov (ISR) set up an all-China semi-final match.
In the other quarter-final matches Jessie Radanovich (USA) dominated #2 seed Hye In Lee (KOR) 15-5 while Strelnikov (ISR) outlasted Lizaveta Khlystunova (BLR) 15-13. In their semi-final match Strelnikov continued her run with a 15-13 victory over Jessie Radanovich.
Replays of the semi-final matches are all available on the FIE Fencing YouTube channel.