The 2008 gold medal winning Ukrainian women's sabre team continued to steamroll the competition at the 2009 World Championships team event. Anchored by Olga Kharlan, the Ukrainian team defeated France in a lopsided 45-38 match.
The final team match pitted the Ukrainian team of Olga Kharlan, Olena Khomrova, Olga Zhovnir, and Galyna Pundyk against the French team of Carol Vergne, Leonore Perrus, and Solenne Mary.
In depth analysis of the Men's Epee Finals at the 2009 Fencing World Championships.
The Men’s Epee finals were hosted in Antalya, Turkey this past Sunday. The depth of the Men’s Epee talent pool is absolutely phenomenal, making for a very exciting event. The beautiful thing about Men’s Epee is that it is near impossible to predict the outcome of a tournament. Epee for the last decade has been heavily dominated by France, Italy and Pavel Kolobkov (Russia). Sunday however, a new Russian star has cemented himself among the top in the world.
Gerek Meinhardt came just one touch short in a dramatic comeback in the men's foil team's top 16 match against #8 seed Japan. Behind 35-28, the anchor for this young US men's foil team scored 16 touches against Japan's closer (reported to be Chida) but could not close out the final touch as Japan advanced 45-44 to the round of 8.
[NOTE: The official FIE scoresheet differs from 1st person accounts of the bout. Because of this we mistakenly had Getz and Ota reported in the final men's foil bout for US vs. Japan.]
On the final day of the individual events of the 2009 Fencing World Championships, Russia and Germany added gold medals as the US fencers make an early exit.
Russia earned another world championship title as Lubov Shutova bested Canada's Sherraine Schalm 9-8 in overtime in the women's epee event. Germany added a gold medal in men's sabre to go with their men's foil bronze as Nicolas Limbach bested Romania's Rares Dumitrescu 15-11.
Russia notches up two upset wins in the finals to take how gold in the Women's Foil and Men's Epee events at today's World Championships events.
In women's foil, Italian Valentina Vezzali loses in the final 8 and Russia's Aida Shanaeva defeats Korea's Jeon Hee Sook for the world championship title. Matteo Tagliariol is unable to hold onto a late lead and loses to Anton Avdeev (RUS) in men's epee.
Mariel Zagunis started the day with a close match in the round of 64 against Hye Lim Kim (KOR) but found her speed and rolled through her next matches en route to winning the 2009 World Championship in Women's Sabre. Along the way, Zagunis faced off against teammate Daria Schneider and Ukraine's Olena Khomrova.